[R-390] Yard sale find

[Joe Foley]

Nah, you can't beat this one!

The guy who called me to remind me to re-new my Amateur Radio license got into a  conversation with me about radios.  He said his station was all Solid State and he had no use for tubes.  He said he had, not one, BUT TWO, R-390's sitting under his bench that he wanted to get rid of but they were too heavy for him to move and if I wanted them I'd have to carry them out.

Yeah, like I need to finish this story, one sits on the bench, in my cabin, the other is in,...... the stash.

Joe



--- On Tue, 9/22/09, Adam Vaughn <AdamAnt316 at comcast.net> wrote:

> From: Adam Vaughn <AdamAnt316 at comcast.net>
> Subject: Re: [R-390] Yard sale find
> To: R-390 at mailman.qth.net
> Date: Tuesday, September 22, 2009, 3:30 PM
> *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
> 
> 
> 
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