AOTA (Antiques On The Air) - The Collins R-390A/URR Military Surplus HF Receiver ...

Описание: UPDATE: In my video, I say this receiver was classified TOP SECRET until the capture of the USS Pueblo on 23 January 1968 ... below is a more correct report:

Besides Collins Radio, there were 13 other sub-contractors which built R390A's until the last one rolled off the assembly line in 1984. Banks of these fine radios served the country in all branches of the military and also the CIA and NSA for monitoring communications from behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War years where the R390A was classified TOP SECRET until the mid-1960's. (SOURCE: Chuck Rippel WA4HHG)
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I bought this receiver from a ham who had purchased the radio equipment estate of a deceased ham radio operator ... my ham friend told me he didn't think it worked ... I brought it home and turned on the power control and lo and behold the pilot lamp over the "KILOCYCLE CHANGE" display came on ...

I quickly found an antenna and a Hallicrafters speaker and began playing with this gem of a receiver ... the gears in the tuning mechanism could stand some cleaning and lubricating but other than that this vintage radio was in very good shape ...

The power cord turned out to be intermittent but was quickly and easily replaced (no doubt why the ham friend who sold it to me thought it didn't work) ...

Multiple R-390/A receivers were in use onboard the USS Pueblo when it was was attacked and captured by the North Koreans on 23 January 1968 ... an Internet photo of the Pueblo's radio room shows at least 6 of these receivers in rack mounts ...

https://tinyurl.com/ufmm5fkr

My R-390 (S/N 5597) was manufactured by Electronic Assistance Corporation which made more than 15,000 of them ... Collins designed this radio but only manufactured just over 6,000 of them ... total production was just over 55,000 ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R-390A

This is considered to be the best "vacuum tube" radio receiver ever made ...

73, Wey - K8EAB
Metro Atlanta, GA

https://www.qrz.com/db/k8eab