[R-390] Further on problem getting my R390A working

[Don Reaves]

Ken,
I'm sending a link to the handout I used back in 2001 to conduct a short
introduction workshop on the R-390A.  It may be of some use to you.

At a minimum, if you are to do any troubleshooting of your receiver, you
need a voltmeter.  Even a throwaway digital meter for $10 from Harbor
Freight is better than guessing.  With the ohms function of the meter you
can test a tube to see if it has filament continuity, which would answer
one of your questions.  You can use the meter to check for basic voltages
present in the receiver.  Be careful - high voltage is present.

However, if you are hearing signals from your receiver, chances are most if
not all of the tubes are working, at least somewhat.  You can't always tell
if a tube is glowing properly by looking under normal lighting conditions.
Try looking at night or in a darkened room.

I would ignore any noise you hear from the radio below 500 KC, it's
specified low end range.  Tuning below 500 is going to reveal nothing
useful.
You should be able to find WWV standard time broadcasts from Ft. Collins CO
at 5 MC, 10 MC, or 15MC depending on the time of day and propagation.  That
will help verify your receiver is working.

http://militaryradio.com/manuals/Misc/R390ABasicMaintenance.pdf

Good luck, have fun!









On Wed, Sep 19, 2018 at 1:46 PM, Ken Perales <kenperales at comcast.net> wrote:

> I have had my 390 turned on for 4 days now and checking many times a day
> for heat build up and two days ago went the the full CAL function all the
> way from 0 MHz to 32 MHz every one hundred KHz.  Other than some zero
> shifting in the higher bands, 2 to 3 KHz.  There is a CAL signal all the
> way.  Then I changed to AGC and went the full range from 10 KHz to 32999
> KHz.  I found a lot of carrier signals all over the bands and a lot of what
> we used to call teletype signals.  But did not find any Morse signals from
> bottom to top and only some AM radio signals scattered on a number of
> bands. From 10 KHz to 1999 KHz there are all kinds of radio stations in all
> kinds of languages given I am right outside Houston, I guess that is
> normal.  From there the only radio signals I picked up were 8580, 9400,
> 9222, 9480, 11761, 11788, 11863, 11940, and 17867.  No radio or morse any
> where else.
>
> Of the vacuum tubes looking from the top, very few have any glow showing.
> V505, V506 slightly glowing, V401, V501, E209, V204, V203, V207.  That does
> not change no matter what MHz I am on.
>
>
> So with this brief look at the radio and with no test equipment available,
> Does this point to anything identifiable or do I need to take it to a shop
> that can test all the individual tubes  to see if what looks like a dozen
> tubes might need to replaced in which case this was no where close to
> operational when I received it.  Everything else looks very clean and no
> sign of corrosion or broken for disconnected wires.  The slugs look
> reasonably clean without trying to remove them.  If there is something else
> I can check without taking it to far apart, I am willing to try.
>
>
> Regards
>
>
> Ken Perales
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-- 
Don Reaves  W5OR
8101 Barrett Rd.
Roland AR 72135
Fiber: 501.244.3574
Radio: 501.952.8573