[R-390] RE: What Came After The R-390

[Bob Camp]

Hi

Most of the intercept radios that are being made these days are of  
the "throw it all into an A/D converter" type. They are more or less  
black boxes that interface to a computer. The closest equivalent in  
ham radio would be the software defined radio.The advantage is that  
you can get a *lot* of channels all at once. You can also demodulate  
all sorts of bizarre digital signals without custom demodulator  
hardware. Like it or not the intercept target today is a lot more  
likely to be a digital chirp than an AM station. There are a bunch of  
people who make these radios ranging from the old time radio  
companies like Collins and Racal through a bunch of tiny little three  
guys in a garage outfits.

I doubt we will ever see the military going for another custom  
designed radio with knobs like the R390. Even in it's day the R390  
could not be justified for intercept use. The radio was built for  
general purpose use and moved over to intercept duties when somebody  
proved it could do the job. The amazing thing about this radio is  
that it did so many things so well. If you talk to people who used  
the "competitors"  to the R390 in an intercept role, none of them  
were as rugged, or as widely deployed.

     Take Care

             Bob Camp
             KB8TQ


On May 16, 2005, at 10:32 PM, Flowertime01 at wmconnect.com wrote:

> Fellows,
>
> There are two kinds of radio receiver operation out there.
>
> Type one is RTTY link fixed frequency. Fixed channel PRC series of
> transceivers work for this kind of operation. Most of the receivers  
> I have seen in the
> last 20 years fall into this mode of operation. It is in the detent  
> and set to
> this frequency or you move it one detent stop and you are on the  
> adjacent
> channel frequency. Nothing between the two choices.
>
> Type two is more like Amateur operation and R390, any frequency  
> between and
> across 31.5Mhz with a resolution of as fine as you are willing to  
> work the knob
> to.
>
> The intelligence agency's doing intercept work still have a use for  
> this type
> of a receiver. You can drag in any signal if you work it long  
> enough. You
> could put the original on tape real time and play it over and over  
> until you get
> it if you wanted it. IE the commander said get it. These are the  
> receivers we
> are going to want when they get surplused out. Someday they will  
> be. R390's
> went out the door because the military was lobbied and congress was  
> lobbied to
> have military contractors build new stuff and tax payers pay the  
> bill. If the
> military needed more good receivers, they could have ask the low  
> bidder to
> build another batch of R390/A.
>
> The 45 was a good item since 1911. Someone wanted to sell something  
> new and
> could not make money low bidding a new batch of 45 iron. So the  
> lobby was in
> for the 9MM. The results is bla, bla, bla and BS.
>
> Receivers changed over the years. Fixed frequency channel receivers  
> and
> transmitters got cheep and easy to manufacture. Thank you CB,  
> business band, and
> digital tuning. This type of receiver has been applied to every  
> nitch it would
> fit into.
>
> The small market, (Amateur, Intelligence, Science) for full tuning  
> receivers
> has been put on the back burner. The "glut" of R390/A surplus has  
> filled the
> market for most Amateur and science needs. So no one is building a  
> military
> receiver to match the range of the R390's.
>
> Long haul HF military has gone back to wire lines and satellite  
> links. This
> has moved out of the HF range. A watt of hand held HF in a tactical  
> battle
> field will get you killed. You put up a signal that can be DF'ed  
> from 30 miles and
> you are going to catch so much incoming artillery you own unit will be
> jamming that radio where the sun never shines. So tactical battle  
> field has also
> move into VHF, UHF and fixed digital channel tuning. Just because 1  
> watt will not
> go 30 miles.
>
> While the Amateur community is facing more use on our frequency  
> spectrum,
> other parts of the HF bands are getting much less use today. I can  
> see amateur
> radio haveing any thing and every thing under 50Mhz. Of course we  
> will have to
> live with BPL the application that finally drove every one else to  
> spread
> spectrum and over 50MHz.
>
> I was reading my copy of World Radio yesterday. The question to  
> Krusty Kurt
> was "how do we get the AM off the Amateur  Bands?" Just as I retire  
> and want to
> get my DX100 and R90/A back on 7Mhz. CW and AM are the two low cost  
> ways to
> still do it your self into Amateur radio. Why do we want to get Am  
> off the
> bands? SSB has been there for 50 years plus and the comment is  
> still SSB sounds
> best in the OFF mode. All of us R390 owners are still looking for a  
> circuit that
> will let SSB come out of a set of phones with a sound that does not  
> leave us
> hearing impaired.
>
> Oh, you meant what receivers were manufactured after the R390/A
> Sorry, I missed the intent of the question.
>
> Roger KC6TRU
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