On 30 Aug 2005 05:37:31 -0700, "John S." wrote:


KA6UUP wrote:
John S. wrote:
David wrote:

On 28 Aug 2005 10:58:11 -0700, "John S." wrote:


Beerbarrel wrote:

But I see that Joe Walsh is the high bidder.......Good luck if you
decide to bid against him.


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MESE%3AIT&rd=1


Wow...that's a lot of money for an old boatanchor!!

Whew!!


It's a nice radio. You should learn to maintain them yourself though.


It is a rather difficult to use and maintain receiver that is really
dated in comparison to modern tabletop receivers. A rack mount radio
of that size and weight seems a little silly today. But to each his
own I guess.

Not true. having owned and operated both the R390 and R390A for years,
they are very simple to align and operate. All you need is a a manual
and a signal generator. Try that with a R75 or AOR flavor of the week.
As far as performance is concerned check out:

http://www.sherweng.com/table.html

pretty heady company for an old boatanchor

It's a long listing of receivers sorted by narrow dynamic range and the
R390A is beaten out on that measure by several smaller, much lighter
and more versatile receivers. I would think that if the R390A were
still a receiver that could perform it's intended task it would not
have been put out for surplus by the numerous government agencies that
once used it and Collins would still be manufacturing it.

I'm not saying that the R390A doesn't offer good receiving performance,
because it clearly does. The old rigs like the R390A and National
HRO500 are electro-mechanical wonders that I get pleasure from by just
watching everything mesh together. But their shortcomings are
substantial when compared to more modern gear.



I would not use the word substantial. You clearly have never had the
pleasure of operating one of these receivers that was at its peak
performance level. The r390 series offers outstanding performance and
maintenance potential. Go out and buy one of these high priced modern
receivers. When it breaks toss it in the trash because they were never
meant to be serviced.