beerbarrel wrote:

Picked up a nice r-392 today. And to think some folks think you can't
gain anything from drinking beer other than a beer gut. I paid for it
with money from recycling the cans from the beer that I drink when I
hang out in the garage.

Love dem bones!
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You must either have saved cans for a long time, drink one
hell of a lot of beer, or found a R392 for a very good price.

My first good SW was a R392. A great "portable" radio.
Might have been why I have a hernia. I loved mine so much
that instead of selling it, I loaned it to a friend with survialist
outlook. It is a very good receiver. Somewhere on the web
I found a link to a series of solid state modifications that
looked interested. If I recall correctly it needs ~24V @3.9A.
I ran mine from a split supply. Heaters +26.5V and the B+
at 30.00V. I used a LM317, with a 2N3055 for current boaster,
and a slow power on supply that took ~60S to go from 1.2V
to 26.5V. I ran the receiver from 1972 through 1984? and
never lost a tube/valve from failed heater. The split supply
kept the drift to something like ~50Hz an hour and removed the
very minor freqeuncy jump when teh crystal oven heaters cycled.
The only serious defect is the lack of a product detector. The
only receiver that I have ever had that was quiter was the R390.

I would strongly suggest replacing the audio output tube with
a solid state replacement as it draws about half the heater
current and makes the radio run much warmer. In a pinch you
can couple the grids to the plates with decent caps for headphone
use.

The only thing I don't miss is the joy of lugging it to a camp
site. Great way to stay in shape. And of course the digital
tuning can get tedious. Crank crank crank...

Terry