[R-390] R390A not working at all

[Flowertime01 at wmconnect.com]

Bill Hawkins wrote:
> Roger,
>
> Would you consider telling us something about how you came by
> this knowledge? It didn't come from a book . . .
>
> Happy New Year, God willing
>
> Bill Hawkins

----------------------------
Once upon a time long ago (1968) I received a draft notice. It was a time for 
draft dodging and so I to elected to dodge the draft. Being polish I elected 
to enlist. I was given a whole bunch of test. After the test some dude ask me 
if I though I could keep a secret. Being polish of course I can do that also. 
So I enlisted in the United States Army Security Agency. That organization I 
learned had possession of most of the R390 and R390/A receivers on the planet 
at that time.

I had graduated high school in 1966. We got to get out of this place if its 
the last thing we every do. Started into Junior College at Mott Community 
College in Flint Michigan. Was working second shift in the GM plant bolting six 
cylinder engines together. Going to school mornings and only taking 12 credits. 
you needed 14 to get deferred. So I had almost two years of college before I 
went into service.
Drafting, mechanical design, English, Industrial materials, welding, Math.

I was given a Morse code test. But I knew I did not want to spend four years 
doing code copy. I was in service to learn something new not spend four years 
marking time doing something I already knew. I wanted to learn some new stuff. 
I flat flunked that test. I tried hard to ensure I did not get even two 
letters correct. That worked. I wound up in Receiver repairman School at Fort 
Devens Mass. 

Go read ASA pages for more on the Security Agency. You need to know where 
your tax dollars are going.

So 14 June until mid August 1968 I was lost in the woods in Misery. Some 
where near Fort Leonardwood.
In August I was sent to Fort Devens. In route I visited Chicago and heard 
Classical Gas on the radio for the first time. Loved it as I had played trombone 
through my school years. At Fort Devens I did some 60 days of KP at Connies 
waiting for a security clearance. So school was a year long.

On Monday you arrived in a new class room. There was a new instructor. You 
were in the room for 5 days and moved on. The instructor knew his one week class 
cold. What ever the subject was you learned it. On Friday was a test. Week 
after week after week. One week we did R390 and the next week we did R390/A just 
to go over it again.

After receiver school I did Microwave school. In Oct 69 I finished school and 
had orders for Viet Nam. So Oct 69 to Oct 70 was spent in Phu Bia at a field 
station.
Field Stations have bunches (can you say thousand) of receivers. We worked 12 
hour shifts forever. About every 10 days we had guard duty. As guard duty was 
sun down to sun up and shifts were noon to midnight or midnight to noon you 
had two shifts off around the guard duty. So you worked about 9 of 10 days. 
Went to Sydney Australia twice that year. Went to Hue a couple times. Saw a bit 
of Sigon.

Did Nov 70 home in the States and went to Korea. Korea also had lots of 
R390/A.
Korea was a 13 month tour so I left Korea in Dec 71. I stopped to see my 
brother in Tokyo Japan. He took me Christmas shopping on the Ginza while I was 
their.

So I had almost 4 years in service by that time and had been Doing R390 
maintenance as a steady living for a good two years.

I had reenlisted in Dec 71 and was going back to Fort Devens near Ayer Mass 
to be an instructor. I went to school to learn to be an instructor. I then 
started teaching the last week of 102F10 or old 33B20 or Receiver Repairman 
School. I taught the AN/TNH-11 audio recorder. It was used to record voice for later 
transcription. I did that for over a year. I then went to NCO training and 
did support for the school. I hauled all the test equipment out of the class 
rooms every three months and took it over to the calibration shop and back to the 
class room.

I meet a girl and we got married. (Oct 73) Wanda and I have been together 
since. In school I had the class the very last week and day of its time together 
for almost a year. These guys were getting short and knew it. I was a hard ass 
and made them get the stuff they needed to know. They would ask me why I was 
so adamant about them getting the stuff. I told them that someday I would be 
back in a field station they would all be their and I did not want to be the 
only guy in the place that could repair a AN/TNH-11.

Wanda had orders for Okinawa when she graduated from 98 School (Traffic 
Analysis). So I put in to go to Okinawa with Her. We did two years together in 
Okinawa. I finished my two year degree between classes at Ft Devens and classes in 
Okinawa. I was promoted to Staff Sergeant E6. I was a trick chief most of the 
time I was in Okinawa at the Torii Field Station. When I arrived their was 
one 33 in the shop who had not had me as an instructor. That guy had been a 
morning student and had Herb Reed as his instructor. He was considered more stract 
than even I was. There were a couple NCO's in Okinawa who knew me from Korea. 
The old guys told the new guys not to worry once I got to Okinawa I would 
teach them to party as well as I had taught them to fix recorders weather they 
wanted to learn to party or not. As I had taught them recorders weather they 
wanted to learn or not.

Wanda and I traveled a week to Teepee Taiwan. Traveled all over Okinawa. I 
spent two years leading a trick shift in the maintenance shop repairing R390/A. 
I got out in late 1975.  I have bad legs. I can walk all day but as soon as I 
start to run I do not have enough blood circulation in my lower legs. I would 
have never been drafted. I did enlist and got through basic in great pain. 
After 8 years of service the Army was getting up to speed on physical fitness. I 
could not imagine my self doing the physical fitness test twice a year for the 
next 12 years to retire. I has been getting by on the pushups set up overhead 
bar scores and walking my mile to finish with a minimum passing score. So I 
did not reenlist again. I skipped a bunch of incoming in Phu Bai but I have a 
Bronze Star and Army Accommodation Medal.

So I did a year in a very good school learning R390/A repair.
Two years of doing it every day all day.
Two years getting quizzed on electronic theory in general.
Two years leading a shift of 10 - 12 guys who were doing it every day all day.

I finished my two year degree in Okinawa.
Worked as an electrician
Picked up a techtronic 500 scope mail order and started an Electronic Repair 
Business.
Built my own home in Michigan.
Finished my four year degree in Computer Science at Central Michigan
Did my Master degree In Computer Science at Central Michigan on the GI bill.
Joined Hughes Aircraft in June 1984.
Traveled the some more for Hughes. (Rota Spain, Paris and London)
Became part of Raytheon in the mergers.
Retried at age 55 from Raytheon in 2004.
I brought my first R390/A in 1984 for $300.00 in San Diego.
Picked up a AN/URM25 at a surplus shop in Lemon Grove.
Picked up a TS 385 at Murphy's in El Cajon.
Picked up three TS 505's at a swap meet.
Picked up two more tecktronic scopes for spare parts.

Now I be retired in Westminster South Carolina.
I am rebuilding the house from the inside out. We started in Nov 2004 and I 
have a second bathroom and Kitchen to go. The First Robot season kicks off here 
on Jan 6th. That will slow the homework down until May.

Then I get to unpack the electronics in the basement and get the shack all 
back in order. 

I do not read the mail every day.

Roger AI4NI was KC6TRU in California