[R-390] Yard sale find

[Adam Vaughn]

*emerges from hiding*

My story is similar to yours, Dennis. I discovered an R-390A, an  
R-392, and an R-48 (early VHF receiver, I think) hiding in the back  
room in the electronics shop at Nashoba Valley Technical High School  
back in 2000, when I was a junior there. Apparently, they'd been  
brought there by a former instructor in the late '70s or early '80s.  
There apparently had been two or three other R-390As at one point, but  
those had 'disappeared' over time, leaving these three. None of them  
were said to work (probably why they'd stayed behind).

I asked about them, but wasn't even allowed to so much as test them.  
All I could do was twiddle the knobs, and marvel at the 'digital'  
tuning mechanism. A couple of years later, spurred on by a friend, I  
decided to go back and see whether or not they'd be willing to get rid  
of them. The shop was in the middle of being moved to a different  
section of the school, so I had a bad feeling that they might've ended  
up in the dumpster along with the other stuff in that back room. When  
I arrived at the shop, after greeting me, the first words out of the  
mouth of one of my old instructors was, "Hey, Adam, you want these old  
radios?" I proceeded to haul the trio out to my Dodge Spirit, and the  
rest, as they say, is history...
-Adam

On Sep 22, 2009, at 2:45 PM, Dennis Deaton wrote:

> Hi Gang,
>
>
>
> I believe I've got you all beat.  I got my R-390A for free.  Mine is  
> S/N:
> 433 from the first contract (14214-PH-51).  I first saw this unit  
> when I was
> in high school in the Spring of 1963.  The school had acquired it  
> through
> some defense department give-away to high school industrial arts  
> programs.
> Our electronics teacher had set it up in the school's ham station in  
> the
> electronics lab.  It was paired up with a Heathkit DX-40 and VF-1 as  
> a CW/AM
> station (talk about an odd couple!).  I went on to college to major in
> engineering while my best friend in school went on to major in  
> industrial
> arts.  Later he ended up teaching electronics in our old high  
> school.  He
> progressed up through the ranks to become chairman of the IA  
> department
> before he retired a couple of years ago.  Back in the late 70's /  
> early 80's
> he was told by the school's principal that they were moving and down- 
> sizing
> the IA department to a different campus and that he needed to  
> dispose of
> nearly all of the equipment.  He called me and asked if I wanted the
> receiver.  It took only about 2 microseconds for me to respond -  
> YES!  All I
> had to do was drive down and get it.  So it's been a part of my  
> station ever
> since.  I'm in the process of rebuilding it now.  Once complete, I'm  
> pairing
> it with a (talk about another odd couple) Johnson Adventurer to make  
> a neat
> little CW station.
>
>
>
> Dennis Deaton, WA6ACC
>
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--
Adam Vaughn
Collector of old computers, video game systems, radios and other  
electronic
equipment...
Visit my page at
http://www.electronixandmore.com/adam/index.html