[R-390] My New and Improved R390A - Thanks Chuck

[Rich Yost]

Just had to sit down and post something finally.

I just got back my R390A from Chuck Rippel this past Sat. 

I was most fortunate to be the first one in the chute when Check got back in the game after his hiatus.

Well, all this time I just though the SWL stations had went dark, not so, the 390a was just a bit deaf, well maybe a lot deaf.
After Chuck got done with his magic, and some parts and replacing the BFO PTO and the main PTO,  well just let me say its like having a new radio !!!!!
I've had this one for about 3 years, and it apparently worked well enough to use it on 160m/80m, sort of. 40m was marginal and so were the upper bands.
But doing SWL listening and such was almost nada.

And my wrist is still recovering from band surfing.
Yes, I can almost spin the Khz knob with one finger now
end points are almost dead on with the PTO, and the BFO is actually stable and stays in one place.
Oh and did I mention he also replace the crystal pack (sp)
The knobs are nicely painted along with the lines and lettering, the display digits are nice and white also.
I really had no idea how bad mine was, now I know what one is supposed to work like.
I'm certainly hearing things I never heard before.


After about two days of running it through its paces, Im a happy R390A user, Chuck did a fantastic job on it.
in my opinion totally worth it and the wait.

And the best part is, I drove down to his house to get it and bring it back, after all of this, I certainly wasn't trusting it to UPS.
I got the grand tour of his bench and he explained everything he did and why.
It was finally nice to meet the man behind the emails and the legend :-)


Thank you Chuck, even my wife and son were impressed ........


Rich
n2ry

and yes, thats the 390A thats on my qrz site (old picture), the knobs are much shiner now !!!!