[R-390] Depot Dawgs

[Bill Cotter]

Russ, Les,

Lexington-Bluegrass Army Depot (LBAD) in Avon KY is a depot like 
Tobyhanna where communications and avionic equipment were 
overhauled and shipped worldwide. I was a young civilian 
engineering-tech while in college from 1972-75, and I spent a lot 
of time repairing R-390's, R-390A's, and R392's, as well as a lot 
of other mil gear. We employed around 5,000 people, most of whom 
were electronic and mechanical technicians, machinists, welders and 
other crafts-people.

The R-390x would come in on one end of Warehouse #3, be stripped 
down to their component parts, everything cleaned in some kind of 
vapor-bath, dried, and each assembly sent to a station for testing 
and repair. Panels and knobs were stripped, painted and lettered by 
rows of people. My role was fabricating the workstation, testing 
jigs and test equipment for each process step per mil specs.

After each module was tested, repaired, final tested and passed QA, 
the component was placed on a shelf by its designation. A radio was 
assembled from the component parts off the shelf, then subjected to 
a burn-in and a final QA with an operational test. The "Depot Dawg" 
came out the other end of Warehouse #3 like-new with a serial tag 
ID'ing LBAD as the overhaul depot. Nobody had any concern for 
"pedigree" as all the components were made to the same mil spec. 
The radios were packaged in containers to withstand drop-shipping 
from helicopters and aircraft in any weather, and the pallets 
containing the radios were shipped out on train cars.

Where the Collins name may have come about in Tobyhanna was that we 
also repaired several hundreds of KWM-2A's and 30L-1's. Mostly from 
Vietnam MARS stations. They usually had a characteristic red dust 
and some were shot up. We would make these radios like-new, but 
without the extensive dismantling that the R-390x series underwent. 
As a consequence, a number of radios deemed unrepairable went to 
the scrap heap (off limits to hams). One of my many jobs on the 
Collins line was to operationally test the pairs in a commo hut on 
the site by making QSO's in the ham bands. Without a doubt, it was 
a dream job!

73 Bill N4LG


At 06:11 AM 10/17/2016, Les Locklear wrote:
>Tobyhanna was a repair depot. When receivers and or the modules 
>could not be repaired at the field level they were shipped to 
>Tobyhanna and other depots for repair. The R-390's would be 
>disassembled down to modules, cleaned tested and repaired, 
>re-assembled (not always with the same modules in the same 
>receivers) and thus were nicknamed "Depot Dawgs." Collins had 
>nothing to do with it.
>
>Les
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: <wb3fau55 at neo.rr.com>
>To: <R-390 at mailman.qth.net>
>Sent: 10/17/2016 3:54:45 AM
>Subject: [R-390] Tobyhanna
>________________________________
>Well, I do not know much about this place. Someone tried to tell 
>me that Collins set up shop there and built R-390s and R-390As 
>there. I told my friend that was not true. To my understanding, 
>Tobyhanna is/was a salvage disposal facility for obsolete military 
>gear. Some comments here please, as I straighten out my friends 
>thinking. 73s Russ.
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