[R-390] Collins ARR-41/R-648 HELP????

[Don Reaves]

Glenn, here are some notes I collected over the years regarding the
R-648/ARR-41.  I have had one for years, but it hasn't made it to the top
of my project pile.  My particular receiver has one of the handles snapped
off and missing.   I have yet to find an exact match to the intact one.

*I made some formatting edits to the R-390 archive contract excerpt below
to make it a little easier to read.  Hope your email client or mine doesn't
foul it up.*


http://k4che.com/ARR-41/ARR-41%20pg1.htm
image of Collins ad for initial ARR-41 Navy contract
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A bit of anecdotal info on the ARR-41 from an ebay seller, circa 2013:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/US-Navy-Collins-ARR-41-R-648-Military-Aircraft-HF-Receiver-and-PS-R-390-/251242726530
(** copied below just in case ebay zaps the completed sale details or the
long URL gets hammered)

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My list of downloadable manuals for ARR-41:
http://militaryradio.com/manuals/ARR-41/
If you examine the 1974 P3V Installation manual excerpt, it pretty much
validates what the ebay seller was describing as to how they may have used
the ARR-41.
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from the R-390 archives:

>From courir26 at yahoo.com Mon Oct 3 15:40:43 2005 Subject: [R-390] R-648
contracts I dug into my bar napkins and found these contract notes on the
648. I'm still a little fuzzy on the freq coverage. Did only some of them
cover medium wave? Tom R

648/ARR-41                     Highest Serial#
-------------------------------------------------------------
NOas55-821r                               150
NOas57-438                                1045
NOas60-0164(medium wave)      MW-897
N383(19-383)74432A                 YY-125

Total Production:                       2,207

*Don's note:  I've not seen any info on number of units produced on the
initial contract, NOas52-670c.  *
*My unit is part of the 60-0164 contract, serial 150, and is not a medium
wave only receiver. *

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** 2013 ebay description copy  (*Don:  apply grains of salt as needed*)

US Navy Collins ARR-41 R-648 Military Aircraft HF Receiver with AC Power
Supply and Speaker. This radio was called the flying R-390 and if you’re
here looking at this you already know what it is. I flew with these on the
P-3B Orion on many deployments during my US Navy career in the early 70’s.
That is why I have this one but it is time to pass on all the stuff I have
collected to a new home. We used these at the time to tune in news and
music from home as they were not used for more than that back then. The
Navy was phasing them out as the ARC-94 HF Receiver on the aircraft at the
time was used for any real communications work. I think the Navy and
Lockheed just had so many of these left over from the EC-121 Constellation
and the P2V Neptune programs that they put them in the P-3A and B to use
them up. There was no other real use for the radio as the TT-264 Teletype
was tied into the ARC-94 and not the ARR-41.
 This one has a Military AIMD supplied AC power supply mounted in a nice
Hallicrafters Speaker cabinet. The supply gives the radio all the needed
voltages and has an audio section (impedance and output transformer) to
supply the 8 ohm speaker from the line level as was used to supply the ICS
system in the aircraft. I had the cabinets over spayed with Collins St.
James Gray and used a nice undercoat of Truck Bed Coating to give it a very
tough textured finish. It looks perfect. The front of the Speaker Grill is
painted Collins S-Line speaker grill grey. The high low filter switch on
the speaker works well. This is an earlier version of the ARR-41 as it has
the chrome metal handles. Later versions had the handles pained black and
were offset. This radio plays as well as it looks. This is the 3rd one I
have owned and the last. Some of these were just plain deaf and no matter
what you did with them they never got much better. This one is hot and the
reason I kept it. I have not spec’d it out and if you think you’re going to
be getting R-390 performance from this radio think again. With everything
there is a compromise and this is not an R-390 or R-390A. But these did the
job for Uncle Sam at the time and are light weight and easy to move about.
It has been a pleasure using it and remembering the times I would tune in
the BBC, VOA or AFRN and feed it through the ICS for everyone to listen to
on those long flights.
 As of right now it needs a mechanical fix. The Veeder Root counter is off
by 10mhz. The manual will take you through the calibration procedure. It is
well written and easy to follow. I’m just tired of fixing things and so I’m
leaving that up to you. I also have a couple of hand wired in replacement
bulbs (not soldered) but you can get the peanut bulbs on eBay here and put
in the correct ones. All the functions of the radio work well. The audio
gain pot is scratchy though and no matter how much deoxit 5 I put in there
it is permanent. I would recommend replacing if it bothers you. I even
think I have an exact replacement pot for it someplace and if I find it, it
will be included with the sale. The front panel has some blotchy spots to
the upper right of the counter and below it where AIMD stickers and
placards once were. The Navy used a glue that would hold an elephant to the
bomb racks and so the residue stuck. It only shows in certain light. I
dabbed some St. James Grey over the spots so it is the correct color and
does not detract from the look of the panel. The rest of the panel and the
lettering are in excellent shape for the use these got.

  [shipping details deleted]

On Mar-13-13 at 13:37:15 PDT, seller added the following information:

To answer a few more questions: The ARC-94 HF Radio set consisted of 2
control panels, 2 Collins 618T Transceivers and an antenna coupler with a
tandem dipole/long wire antenna from the tail of the aircraft to the center
of the fuselage. The ARR-41/R-648 could be tied to the Teletype through the
HF1 ICS  Monitor Selection Switch but during the early 70’ we did not use
it that way. WWV @ 5, 10 or 15 MHz was the first thing we set the ARR-41 on
during preflight and that was all the tactical use it got. This one does
not have a dynamotor. It is plug_and_play with the AC supply. This one
works on all bands and all modes. It covers from 190-550 kHz, 2.0-25 MHz
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*Don again:  AIMD is Aircraft Intermediate Maintenance Department? *

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