[R-390] The radio machine, getting bit by the bug

[zl3aa at use.startmail.com]

For me it all started in 1977 when I was 9 years old and my Dad bought 
me a Crystal Set for Christmas. He and my older brother put it together 
for me and I had many hours listening to a couple of local AM stations. 
The concept of chasing DX never occurred to me at that age. Later on in 
the early 1980s I started playing with mains operated tube radios (and 
got zapped a few times putting my fingers where they don’t belong). 
Again it was my Dad who influenced me in my hobby, one night he 
suggested that I wait until after midnight when a few of the 
broadcasting stations closed, which would enable me to try to receive 
stations I wouldn’t normally hear. So the idea of deliberately trying 
to receive distant stations was born…back then, using old tube 
broadcast receivers my idea of ‘DX’ was anything that was not in my 
hometown of Christchurch…basically any other stations I could hear 
across New Zealand. If I got really lucky I would get an Australian 
station but that was very rare.

A year or two later my Uncle had a portable radio/tape deck that had 
shortwave on it and I was amazed to be able to hear signals from other 
parts of the world. I had no idea what I was listening to because it 
wasn’t english but I knew I was getting something somewhere in the 
Pacific, during broad daylight. A few years later when I started 
working I bought myself a brand new Yaesu FRG-7700, then I started to 
think more about ham radio. I kept putting the idea aside because it 
seemed like it was too hard. Back then there were only two testing 
dates per year! (March and September I think) so if you failed you 
literally had to wait months for another chance. I eventually had to 
sell the 7700 when my car needed repairs and the cost was double what 
was originally quoted…dirty mechanic taking advantage of a naive 
teenage perhaps. He wanted my radio, so that was part payment for the 
repairs. I fell away from the hobby for many years after that.

Fast forward to the late 1990s and I picked up an RCA AR-88LF for $150 
(they are really cheap here but hardly ever come up for sale) then in 
2002 I finally got my ham radio call of ZL3AA. For a while I owned a 
Kenwood TS-520 and made some nice CW contacts on it but the relay in 
that thing drove me nuts!  At some point a few years later I started to 
learn about other ‘boatanchor’ type radios and when I discovered the 
R-390 I coveted owning one for a long time. I didn’t really think it 
would ever happen, online shopping was very new to me at that point, I 
had never used ebay for anything either. I stumbled across Andy 
Moorer’s site and thought I would send him a note asking if he would 
sell me an R-390A. I was ecstatic when he responded and said yes! So I 
bought my first R-390A from him, a Teledyne. I have since bought an EAC 
and a Stewart Warner and was lucky enough to buy a Motorola R-390 from 
Andy also. 

These days I only have the four R-390, R-390As that I bought from Andy, 
a Softrock RXTX ensemble and I am about to assemble a KD1JV tribander 
(CW only…when I am hamming, but may get into digital modes one day). I 
have coveted the Yaesu FT-102 since I was about 18 years old but it’s 
always been out of reach for whatever reason…either my interest in 
radio has waned and I don’t think about it, or when I do get into the 
hobby again and start looking they are either too expensive or not 
available…

Best 73
Ken 
ZL3AA