[R-390] Stewart Warner production numbers..?

[Nick England]

FWIW, I have been tracking R-388 serial numbers and contracts at
https://www.navy-radio.com/rcvrs/r388.htm

The receiver ID tag number starts over with each contract. There is also a
Collins manufacturing number stamped into the chassis that continues in
sequence across contracts. For example,
1950 - 19624-PHILA-50 (s/n 136) is Collins s/n 180
1952 - 3357-PHILA-52 (s/n 14) is Collins s/n 5595
Cheers,
Nick England K4NYW
www.navy-radio.com


On Sat, May 28, 2022 at 12:12 PM Jordan Arndt <Outposter30 at shaw.ca> wrote:

> Hi group...
>
> While I'd like to have a somewhat larger sample size, I'd like to thank
> Gary, Jacques, Larry, Tom et al for the info I have received.
>
> From what I can discern thus far, my belief is that the 1959 and 1960 SW
> production was actually a single production run spread out over 2 contract
> numbers.
>
> The reason I believe this to be the case is that the serial numbers of the
> modules and front panels do not work under any other scenario, unless it
> was common to have many hundreds or thousands of spare or excess modules
> and front panels produced, which makes no economic or manufacturing sense.
>
> For example, the 1960 SW I've been slowly restoring has mainly 1960
> production modules and front panels all of which are numbered well over
> 5,000, while the high known S.N. for that run is 4,572. Eg. the front panel
> is number 5266 and the remaining 1960 SW modules are all within a few
> hundred either way of that number.
>
> What I believe is that the serial number on the ID tag is actually a
> serial number the final assembly of the various modules and chassis, and
> was likely re-set to zero sometime in early 1960, which makes a great deal
> of sense both for record keeping and production as I've experienced in
> ISO-900x manufacturing.
>
> When I was involved in the production of optical mark reading equipment
> which were to be installed in lottery terminals, every CRT, power supply,
> ckt board and mechanical structure or device was assigned a particular
> serial number for record keeping for QA/QC and ISO tracing.
>
> After passing QA/QC burn-in and testing, these assemblies and modules were
> later installed into the terminal unit and then the entire terminal unit
> assembly was then given a serial number and was tracked throughout its use
> along with the installed modules.
>
> If one of the modules failed, it was returned for examination and repair
> where possible, and the modules list of the terminal unit was changed to
> show that a module(s) had been replaced and the listed serial number
> changed to that of the replaced module.
>
> I believe that I can say with some certainty that no production engineer
> or manager would ever even attempt to have the various module/assembly
> serial numbers match on any production "unit" because that would be almost
> impssible to implement without slowing production to an absolute crawl. The
> logistics of that would be egregiously complex and very expensive to
> implement.
>
> Obviously, I can't account for what happened in the field after delivery
> given Depot module replacement and/or swapping, but I'd expect some type of
> similar record keeping would have been in place. Does anyone have that type
> of information...?
>
> Interestingly, the reason that I started looking into this is that I am
> trying to determine what an appropriate ID Tag for the 59 and 60 SWs I have
> might be...
>
> I'll likely post a 2nd part of my spiel, but I would appreciate any
> comments or info which you folks might provide...!
>
> 73 for now...Jordan VE6ZT
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>   From: Larry H
>   To: Jacques Fortin
>   Cc: Jordan Arndt ; R-390 Forum
>   Sent: Friday, May 27, 2022 8:02 PM
>   Subject: Re: [R-390] Stewart Warner production numbers..?
>
>
>   Yes, the date on this file is 3-18-2022.
>
>
>   Regards, Larry
>
>
>   On Fri, May 27, 2022 at 1:03 PM Jacques Fortin <jacques.f at videotron.ca>
> wrote:
>
>     I believe that the latest info available is here:
>     https://www.r-390a.net/R390a%20R390%20R391%20Production%20Notes.pdf
>
>     73, Jacques, VE2JFE in Montreal
>
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