[R-390] R-390 Digest, Vol 67, Issue 13

Mon Nov 16 18:38:22 EST 2009

 Hi Natan,

I finished doing the evaluation of your R 390A this afternoon and have logged all of the problems, not many actually.. I will do a written estimate in the morning and give you some options and cost to consider. Other than being a little dusty and some grime on the gear train your unit is in remarkably good condition. You DO have all modules from the same contract number so, no depot dawg here.. You have a late manufactured unit with Teflon wire and mostly IERC tube shields except on the audio and Power supply units. THose shields are good but not IERC. 

Where the biggest problem noted was non linearity of the COSMOS PTO is plus and minus about 5 KHz across a one MHz range. The spec is plus and minus 2 KHz and I can usually get better than that, often well under 1 KHz. 
The KHz knob, nonmar clamped cracked in the past and was replaced with a waterhose clamp. This is a workable solution and it's hard to find these clamps but I think I can come up with one.

The front panel was very nice except fpr several areas with minor scratches and I am sure you are aware of them. I recommend a touch up there to save money but I can strip and repaint as well as re letter the panel but it's time consuming and takes about 25 to 30 hours of work to really do a nice job. I charge $225 for doing a complete repaint of the front panel and all of the knobs; the automotive paint I use is right $110/quart.  Again, most of your knobs look fine except the KHz and Local gain knobs. A few others have missing paint here and there but it's not bad.

All of your crystals are in very good shape and only 2 or 3 were as much as 1Khz off from my GPS disciplined frequency counter. Many were less than 100 Hz off. The sensitivity was very good on all bands with a MDS of anywhere from .2 to 1 microvolt. This is not a S = N1/N1 measurement where you measure 10dB above noise measurement. I do those after the alignment is complete. MDS, as I define it, is as soon as I can barely hear a signal plus 3 dB This is a standard that many of use. It used to be MDS was the very least signal that could be heard, which can very from one person to another. 3dB above the noise floor is something anyone with reasonably good hearing should be able to hear.

Your Mech assembly ( gear train ) is not bad but a little grungy. This is an area where you can save some money. Many of the unit's I get in for repairs have very dirty Mech assemblies with years of dirt, grease, more grease and more dirt. This requires complete disassembly and all gears need to be very thoroughly cleaned and then put back together and re lubricated. This normally runs about $180 for the cleaning and mechanical alignment. In your case, a little cleaning and re lube with synthetics will leave your mech assembly in very good condition. I don't think it was every lubed after it was built.

The audio is a little distorted, probably from capacitors on the Audio module and your line filter is leaky and should be replaced or bypassed. I'll give you some options in my estimate.

I'll finish the estimate in the morning and wait to hear from you before doing any more work. You have an exceptionally nice unit and with a little work will be a piece you can be very proud of for the duration. I'll be sending you a number of pictures I took as I worked on your unit. I'll send those with the estimate..

BTW, I had a customer from New Mexico call today and he is looking for a unit like yours. I mentioned I was working on a unit now and he asked if my customer wanted to sell it.. I told him, I would keep looking for a real late one for him..

73,
Glenn

-----Original Message-----
From: r-390-request at mailman.qth.net
To: r-390 at mailman.qth.net
Sent: Thu, Nov 12, 2009 12:00 pm
Subject: R-390 Digest, Vol 67, Issue 13

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Today's Topics:

   1. Weber copper cap rectifiers (Robin Filby)
   2. FS  Shipping Container  Great for R390  BIG! (Dave or Debbie Metz)
   3. Re: Weber copper cap rectifiers (David C. Hallam)
   4. Re: Average Ham Shack (William A Kulze)
   5. Re: Weber copper cap rectifiers (Les Locklear)
   6. Re: Average Ham Shack (Barry Williams)
   7. Re: Average Ham Shack (William A Kulze)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:21:12 +0000 (GMT)
From: Robin Filby <robin.filby at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: [R-390] Weber copper cap rectifiers
To: r-390 at mailman.qth.net
Cc: racal at mailman.qth.net
Message-ID: <122028.48932.qm at web25407.mail.ukl.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8

Hi.

I know this is slightly of the R-390 thread.

I am thinking of purchasing a couple of WZ34 Weber copper cap rectifiers for the 
Racal RA17 receiver.

orders at weberorders.com

Has anybody had any experience of using these copper cap rectifiers??

I am interested in their thoughts and views.

Thanks in advance.

Regards

Rob.

------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 2009 07:30:33 -0500
From: Dave or Debbie Metz <dmetz at ntelos.net>
Subject: [R-390] FS  Shipping Container  Great for R390  BIG!
To: R-390 <R-390 at mailman.qth.net>
Message-ID: <4AFBFFE9.6030804 at ntelos.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

I have a shipping container that is ex military. Probably molded
fiberglass, detachable top, lots of foam rubber, sealing valves,  such
that I really think one could put in a 390 and drop it 6' with no
damage. It's big folks... 31x22x27 but it should safely ship a 390 or
sp600 etc.  It has handles on the ends for lifting.  I have $50 in it 
and will sell it for that picked up.  Now the bad news about it's size:

However..... for those of you who think that's a good deal, remember
dimensional weight for ups.  This probably weighs 25 lbs empty but.....
UPS will charge for 95 lbs because of dimensional weight regardless of
the fact that it only weights 25lbs.  So,to ship a 390 in this, you will 
be charged for about 120lbs, but the first 95 is no charge because you 
have to pay for 95 lbs anyway! Not exactly, but the problem is the 
return trip empty when you get charged for 95 lbs and it only weighs 25 lbs.

QTH  Staunton, Virginia  along I-81 at north intersection of I-64.

73's
dave

------------------------------

Message: 3
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:18:10 -0500
From: "David C. Hallam" <dhallam at rapidsys.com>
Subject: Re: [R-390] Weber copper cap rectifiers
To: Robin Filby <robin.filby at yahoo.co.uk>
Cc: racal at mailman.qth.net, r-390 at mailman.qth.net
Message-ID: <4AFC0B12.6090906 at rapidsys.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

I have used the Weber Copper Top rectifiers in my R-390 for several 
years with no problems.

David
KW4DH

Robin Filby wrote:
> Hi.
> 
> I know this is slightly of the R-390 thread.
> 
> I am thinking of purchasing a couple of WZ34 Weber copper cap rectifiers for 
the Racal RA17 receiver.
> 
> orders at weberorders.com
> 
> Has anybody had any experience of using these copper cap rectifiers??
> 
> I am interested in their thoughts and views.
> 
> Thanks in advance.
> 
> Regards
> 
> Rob.
> 

-- 

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can
exist only until the voters discover they can vote themselves largess
out of the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always
votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the public
treasury, with the result that democracy always collapses over a loose
fiscal policy, always to be followed by a dictatorship."

------------------------------

Message: 4
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:40:54 -0500
From: William A Kulze <wak9 at cornell.edu>
Subject: Re: [R-390] Average Ham Shack
To: "r-390 at mailman.qth.net" <r-390 at mailman.qth.net>
Message-ID:
    <DE22CEC81E5CE84085109B87AADD06C403F39A02 at MBXA.exchange.cornell.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

I've stumbled on this somewhere else. WOW!

Here's a question for you, if you walked in there, where would you head first? I 
think I would be so overwhelmed, I had have to wait for the initial shock to 
wear off! Then you wouldn't be able to get me out of there. By then, I'd 
probably be a quivering mass of jelly! I think heaven might be something like 
this! Hell would probably be this, with no line current!

Bill W2NVD

-----Original Message-----
From: r-390-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:r-390-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On 
Behalf Of Don Reaves
Sent: Monday, November 09, 2009 12:28 PM
To: r-390 at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [R-390] Average Ham Shack

No hamshack is complete without at least one R-390A.

http://www.qrz.com/db/w9evt

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------------------------------

Message: 5
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 2009 07:43:10 -0600
From: "Les Locklear" <leslocklear at cableone.net>
Subject: Re: [R-390] Weber copper cap rectifiers
To: "Robin Filby" <robin.filby at yahoo.co.uk>,    <r-390 at mailman.qth.net>
Cc: racal at mailman.qth.net
Message-ID: <4C78F54EA0BC4D84A6F247D5F10F492B at zion>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Installed one in an HQ-180 several years ago. Does what it's supposed to.

Les Locklear
Gulfport, Ms.
Dx'ing since '57

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Robin Filby 
  To: r-390 at mailman.qth.net 
  Cc: racal at mailman.qth.net 
  Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2009 5:21 AM
  Subject: [R-390] Weber copper cap rectifiers

  Hi.