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

Cecil Acuff chacuff at cableone.net
Tue May 17 08:31:13 EDT 2005 

Sounds like we need to face up to the facts....THESE are the good old days. 
Don't sound like there is much in our future to look forward to as far as 
newer radio's coming out of service that we'll want to spend much time on...

Last I heard the Government is not allowing any technology to be surplused 
anyway.  Any R-1051's for example that are coming out of service are being 
scraped for the metals.

Cecil...
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bob Camp" <ham at cq.nu>
To: <Flowertime01 at wmconnect.com>
Cc: <R-390 at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2005 6:28 AM
Subject: Re: [R-390] RE: What Came After The R-390


> 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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>
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