[R-390] eBay NOS R-390A

[Les Locklear]

Well, the Fowler serial number 2 was found at the LBTF (Land Based test Facility) at the Long Beach Shipyard.......a small piece of history there.

Les Locklear
Gulfport, Ms.
Hammarlund HQ-150
Hammarlund HQ-180A
Hammarlund SP-600 Re-Engineered by John R. Leary
Ten Tec RX-350



  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: glwebb at gundluth.org 
  To: r-390 at mailman.qth.net 
  Sent: Wednesday, April 07, 2010 12:43 PM
  Subject: Re: [R-390] eBay NOS R-390A


  Roger,

    Do you know for sure the  Long Beach unit has no interesting history?

  I used R-390A's in the Navy when I was on Guam 1967-68 where we did a lot
  of
  intercept of a lot of different kinds of traffic including some from
  underwater sources.
  There were around 10 spy ships in service during those years.  The USS
  Pueblo
  and the USS Liberty had some pretty interesting events.  Of course their
  receivers
  did not end up in the public domain.  But that leaves  8 other ships with a
  lot of R390A's
  that "heard" a lot of interesting and significant  traffic. Yours may be
  one of them.

   In Panama 1968-1970. We had two to four Army ASA guys per  watch doing
  intercept for their own interests.
  We had a  R-390A   which  was monitoring the  NASA frequency  during the
  Apollo 11 mission. I had the good fortune to be on watch during the landing
  itself.    Now I have no evidence that my Navy Motorola R390A  was the one
  that
  I tuned and listened to 41 years ago.  But I can imagine it is.  And if
  nothing else
  is true, it can and does, remind me of some pretty interesting and
  historically important
  times and doings that centered around these wonderful receivers. Whether
  they ended
  up at the St. Julian's massacre or the Long Beach Naval Yard.

  Gary L Webb NI9V


  "
  Tisha,

  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.

  There is a real point I had not though on long enough. I have a Blue
  striper we know came out of an ASA sight some where and one that was used
  in the
  Long Beach California ship yard prior to about 1980. The Long Beach one
  looks
  better but it sure does not have the history of my blue striper.

  Thanks for fixing my point of view."

  Roger Ruszkowski 33C4H</HTML>

  ______________________________________________________________
  R-390 mailing list
  Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/r-390
  Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
  Post: mailto:R-390 at mailman.qth.net

  This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
  Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html