[R-390] Waking up my non-A

[John Lawson]

  Some months ago, thanks to a botched listing header, I found (and was the 
only bidder on) a 390 (non-A).

  It is a Motorola, sn 3585, MWOs 11-5280-294-35/1 and /2.
  It has a Collins PTO.

   Been modded a bit, mostly in the audio output wiring.

   I brought it up slow on a variac and ammeter - after a couple of hours 
'soaking' at 60V on standby.

   After working up to full line voltage, and nothing 
exploding/burning/complaining, I am now in a position to make 'er Work.

   So far - it's 50/50.  Overall operation is quite poor - but it is 
working a little.  There is backround noise, controllable by the RF gain, 
the BFO is working, and there appears to be recievable Calibrator signals 
(every 100Khtz) above 19 or 20 Mhtz.  There is a birdie at 250kHtz and 710 
kHtz on all bands.  So far the only band that seems to be paying attention 
to the Outside World is 21 mHtz - faint sigs can be heard that respond to 
the controls, and stop when the antenna is removed - I'm using the Unbal 
ant for this quick-and-dirty test.

   Mechanically, aside from being in desperate need of Oily TLC, it seems 
to be all there and working - nothing's binding, no coupler parts on the 
bench, no stuck/broken slugs.  Even has the small green stamped gear 
affixed to the front of the IF rack, with "MWO" stamped next to it.


   I have the Manual on CDROM, which I need to get immersed in, but I 
thought to ask the Gurus and Pundits if there is a 'condensed' set of 
tests or procedures I might undertake in the meantime, to narrow this down 
a bit?

   I'm sending my R-388 panel off for re-furb while I fix it's PTO and give 
it new tubes and a few new capacitors, so I was hoping to use the R-390 as 
'companion' radio to the -390A I have as my main receiver.

  Cheers

John  KB6SCO