[R-390] ebay NOS r-390A

[Tisha Hayes]

I find it incredible that by attaching an N.O.S. "new" label on a 40 year
old radio could make so many people wet their pants to buy it. I would not
pay >$5000 for an R-390A today.

No matter how long it has sat in a box those components are going to age. We
know that caps deteriorate over time and that even buying a NOS capacitor
from those days is not the same thing as buying a capacitor right off of the
assembly line. Just with time the lubrication dries out and turns gummy,
foam rubber deteriorates and tubes gradually lose their vacuum.

I would rather buy a radio that was in great shape before it went in for a
professional restoration by someone like Chuck or Rich.

One thing I would have liked is a set of the original ceramic filters
instead of the mechanical ones that are in 99.9% of what is out there.

There is a difference between a collector who is going to park something on
a shelf and hope it's value increases with time and someone who would put a
radio to a darned good use and twist the knobs every night digging for a
weak signal. I like to think that most people on this list are users and not
just antique collectors.

Picking up one of these radios I am filled with a sense of history. These
were on the front lines of the cold war, listening for the Russians, Chinese
and Vietnamese. I do not think that there would be the same sense of history
in a NOS radio that was stored in a warehouse since it rolled off the
factory line.

Ms. Tisha Hayes/ AA4HA
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"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are
willing to work and give to those who would not."
- Thomas Jefferson