Collins R.390A

[Skywave]

Up to now, I thought that the famous Collins R.390A was only manufactured by the Collins Radio Company. But it seems that I am wrong about this:

http://www.r-390a.net/faq-manuf.htm

Al.

[Michaelr]

Just like in the UK the Military liked to have more than one source of manufacture , it makes a lot of commercial sense. The numbers required could not be provided in reasonable timescales without probably the main contractor having to build a new factory, which would be risky and very expensive commercially

My particular unit is an EAC unit , the serial number plate does not have the Rocket displayed.

This unit was not designed for WW2 but was for the "coldwar" , it was so far ahead of its time from the point of view of performance that nobody knew of its existence until the mid 60's , used everywhere to keep close surveillance on the Russian radio traffic. There are variants that are and purportedly still being used by NASA.All covert govt agencies used them including the embassies.

I was told that in the Gulf war there was a very embarrasing block on communications at a command centre due to a sever speight of sandstorms (the static completely obliterating the front ends of the semiconductor comms gear) that they had to reequip with the valve R390A's .

A very fine receiver, incidentally the R390A is a completely different receiver to the R390, the R392 is a ruggedised variant of the R390A meant for vehicle use . It does not have the filter bandwidths of the R390A so not as good in many ways in performance. These were used in Vietnam.

Mike