[R-390] What are the odds?

[Tom Norris]

That was more of a "lets make fun of Murphy" post. :-)

All were stored in a dry area of a basement.  Supposedly heated.   
 From the amount of dust they were at least partially covered or in a  
cabinet.

How did the radios turn out?

The two R-390s are full enough of intermittents and flakiness in the  
RF decks
that I will need to pull them. (eventually)

The intact R-390A I only recently got around to looking over.  Before  
I got a chance
to see if it was really working completely, as I was checking to see  
if the mechanics
worked smoothly - and was randomly changing bands - the clamp an the  
small gear
that engages the Geneva gear decided it wanted to loosen.  It was  
fine before that.
Since I have no idea just when it loosened, I need resynch the  
bandswitch.
Eventually.

The parts radio.  Looked at it a few months ago with the '390s.

It was without a PTO, IF amp, meters, some knobs, a few slugs,  
crystal oven,
and, I think a gear clamp or two.  Antenna relay was TU as well. I  
had just gone
over the R-390s and was fairly annoyed and thought "what the heck"  
Without
retelling the earlier B+ Troubleshooting Adventure Of All Time, all  
it needed
after parts replacement and that troubleshooting was a realignment.   
It was
tagged as not repairable. One of the problems I didn't catch but was  
later
found was a shift of about 30 to 50 cps in the first osc when  
receiving very
strong signals. It was only noticed when listening to CW.

Just thought I'd share a story about Murphy.

73

Tom


> A lot depends on how the radios were stored. If they were wrapped  
> up in
> blankets and stored in an indoor closet odds are good they will  
> work right off the
> bat. If they were stored outside in a barn or semi-outside with no  
> cover in a
> garage odds are they will have problems with intermittent switches and
> bandswitch contacts, noisy pots, dried-out grease and dirt in the  
> RF Deck gears that
> will require disassembly and cleaning and there could be corrosion  
> in the
> various chassis that could affect grounding points throughout the  
> receiver. Proper
> storage is extremely important to the proper working of these  
> receivers. The
> Blue-Stripers are a good example of bad storage practices!  73 and  
> Happy New