[R-390] R-390 Topics

[Adam Vaughn]

32, here. When I acquired my R-390A, I was a month or so shy of my 20th birthday. It, along with an R-392 and R-48/TRC-8, had been stored in the back room of the electronics shop at the high school I attended. They'd apparently been there since the late '70s or so, when a previous instructor had brought several military receivers to the shop. There had originally been a few other R-390As, apparently, but the rest had 'disappeared' over the years. The three that remained did so likely by virtue of the fact that they didn't work (the R-392 was missing its case, and the R-390A had been stripped of a couple of its 5814s as well as their tube shields, but seemed complete otherwise). I found out about them during my junior year; I was fascinated by the mechanical-digital tuning method used by the R-390A and R-392, and asked if I could play around with them, but was told no.

A year or so after I graduated, I paid a visit to my old shop; it was then that I found out that the school was going to be expanded, and that the electronics shop was going to be moved to a different part of the school, in one of the new wings. I made a number of visits afterwards, salvaging what I could, but no dice. Then, in March 2003, during yet another visit, my old instructor asked, "Hey Adam, do you want these old radios?" I could hardly get them stuffed in the back of my Dodge Spirit fast enough! I joined this list not long afterwards, and it proved to be an excellent resource.

Over the next couple of months, I began work on the R-390A, figuring I had a better chance of getting it running than the R-392, since there was more info around about its innards. Using printouts from Chuck Rippel's old website, I replaced the 'death caps' in the IF deck, and restuffed the filter cap cans. Replacement 5814s were secured, as was a replacement for the open 3TF7 ballast tube (which I correctly guessed was the reason for the set's original non-working condition!). Bringing it up on a variac, once the tubes warmed up, signals immediately became apparent all over the dial! At the time, my best shortwave receiver was a Hallicrafters S-118; going from that to the R-390A was like trading in a Chevette for a Corvette! ;)
-Adam
 
 
Adam Vaughn
Collector of old computers, video game systems, radios and other electronic equipment... 
Visit my page at http://www.electronixandmore.com/adam/index.html
 
On 12/13/15, Don Reaves<donreaves at gmail.com> wrote:
 
For those newer list members you may be wondering about R-392s and R-648s
(I've had some private queries), here is the text from the R-390 list info
notes.

Welcome to the R-390 mailing list. This list is dedicated to the discussion
of the Collins designed R-390 HF receiver, and its operation, repair,
history, related equipment, and general information.

List etiquette: Stay on topic. Be civil. This list may be moderated at
times, usually to stop an outbreak of spam.

So, under the category of related equipment, we encourage discussion of the
R-390/R-390A cousins and sister radios, like the R-389, R-391, R-392,
R-725, ARR-41; even the ARR-15 and R-388 share some common traits with the
R-390. And this list never gets off topic, ever. :-)

List member Bernie announced he was 79 years young. I wonder if anyone can
top that. And what is the youngest age represented here? We need to have
some young blood involved and interested in keeping these 50 year old
iconic receivers going once we old timers can no longer pick them up. I
plan to have my cold dead hands pried off my EAC R-390A but the rest have
to find a new home eventually.

Don
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