[R-390] RE: Hammond R-390A cabinets through Fair Radio and other sellers

[Phil]

Hi all!

I bought one of the unvented black Hammond tabletop
rack cabinets for my R390A two or three years ago,
back before Fair Radio started carrying them, back
before they were carrying those white microwave oven
type cabinets for the R-390A.

I very much like my Hammond cabinet.  I bought it
through Digikey. A good Canadian made cabinet to put a
great American made receiver in.

I installed two 3 inch, 32 cfm cooling fans in the
upper rear corners to draw warm air out.  Noisy, so I
don't run the fans most of the time.  Sometime I will 
make a control box to lower the voltage to them so
they run quieter - based on experimenting with my
variac - about 70 to 80 volts is ideal.  I tried
wiring them in series, but they wouldn't start by
themselves - you had to spin the blades to get them
going!

Regarding rails - what works superb is to use two
large hardwood dowels as rollers.  There is a spot in
the bottom that will loose fit each one if you cut the
dowels long enough.  I forget the diameter.  I think
it may have been an inch and a quarter, but do your
own measuring. If I can find the leftover piece, I'll
measure and pass this along.  Best thing is to
measure.  Use the bottom cover so it will roll
properly - otherwise the bottom edges of the R-390A
will quickly saw into the dowels. The bottom cover is
well vented, except for around the PTO - and given
that we all run the ovens off - having a draft shield
of sorts around the PTO is probably a good idea. Don't
use the top cover as the vents are certainly not very
ample.  There is ample clearance at the bottom, sides
and top of the Hammond cabinet for decent cooling for
a R-390A.  The cabinet is powder coated in a nice,
strong, pebbly finish and seems to enjoy sinking and
dispersing heat pretty well considering that it is
thick steel, not aluminium.  But, like IERC tube
shields, the inside and outside is black and that
seems to help.  

For my use, the R-390A being on two or three hours an
evening for hard core broadcast band MW DXing [great
on transatlantic stations when used with the 2 KC
bandwidth - for example, Croatia on 1134 KHz, Virgin
Radio on 1215, Germany on 1422 and Switzerland on 765
KHz are regulars here on my R-390A], no fans are
required.  If one were to run it for extended periods
of time, or in hot weather, the fans are a good idea. 
For a R-390, with those hot regulator tubes, a fan
would be a must and I do like the bottom mount fan
idea for that application.

The downside - the cabinet weighs about 30 pounds, so
this takes the 75 lb net weight of the R-390A and gets
it over 100 lbs.  To lift my R-390A, I have to take it
out of its cabinet first.  But, it is easy to do so
with the rollers.  Plus, the rollers support the
chassis so there is no strain on the front panel.  I
am careful not to over-tighten the 8 front screws
attaching the R-390A to the Hammond cabinet.

The black colour looks great, especially with the
repro KC and MC knobs and with the smaller knobs
nicely repainted.

Even my wife, who thought my incomplete, non-working,
super dirty ebay R-390A was the ugliest thing she ever
saw, now thinks it looks pretty good in that cabinet -
of course now it is clean, works great and is very
complete.  I had the R-390A clean and working great
before the cabinet, but she still grumbled about "that
thing".  With the round side holes, metal edges etc.
it has a bit of an unsafe look to the non-enthusiast.
The cabinet gives it a finished, child friendly,
spouse friendly look and the complaining stopped after
it was in the cabinet.

My kids, daughter age 5, son age 2, enjoy using the
R-390A, and my R-392, under my close supervision.  So
far, the front panel may have got one tiny scratch
from this.  It might have been there before though. A
very small price to pay if it means either or both of
them end up sharing my appreciation for radios in
general and boatanchors in particular.

Phil Rafuse, VY2PR
Stratford PEI Canada
"Farewell 1070 CBA"


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