[R-390] Classified Equipment

[mikea]

On Mon, Jun 07, 2010 at 08:29:25AM -0700, James A. (Andy) Moorer wrote:
> I have read the discussion on classification with interest. Perhaps 
> someone can opine on a companion question: does anyone know when the 
> R-390A was first offered to the public? When I was a kid, we knew all 
> about the Hammarlund "super-pro" receivers and gazed upon them with 
> great longing, but I never heard of an R-390-series receiver until the 
> late 60's. Even if they weren't classified, they sure weren't well-known 
> in that era.

I am told that ads for them, newly manufactured, appearsd in radio
magazines in the late 60s. I had heard of them through UNCLAS means by
1969, when the Osan AB MARS station was changing them out for newer
gear. Here's an ad in the October 1968 CQ:

<http://www.jvgavila.com/eac_390a.jpg>

I agree they weren't well-known until the mid-60s at the earliest, but
the word started getting out about 1970 IIRC. 

-- 
Mike Andrews, W5EGO
mikea at mikea.ath.cx
Tired old sysadmin