From: blombardi@x102a.ess.harris.com (lombardi bob 44139)
Newsgroups: rec.radio.shortwave
Subject: Re: Are old shortwaves a better buy?
Date: 23 Jul 92 15:47:44 GMT
Organization: Harris ESS, Melbourne, Fla.

crisp@netcom.com (Richard Crisp) writes:
: I have been following this thread for a while and am surprised that no one
: has mentioned how nice the R390A receivers are. 
:
<<<lots deleted>> 
:
: (415) 903-3832 wk    "what, me worry?"    (408) 253 4541 fax
: "Bill Clinton said he didn't inhale when he tried marijuana,
: and of course when he tried his first beer in high school, he
: didn't swallow. Then there is Jerry Brown who never exhaled."
: -From Mark Russell, live in San Francisco June 30, 1992

I agree with Richard.

For my .02 worth, I own an R-390A (the second time I've owned one), an Icom
IC-735, a Sangean/RS DX-440, and a Panasonic RFB-10, and have owned a
string of others.  You just can't beat the R-390A for the money.  I've seen
them for $150 at hamfests.

I don't consider myself a curmudgeon, and even though I'm barely old enough
to remember the days when an R-390A was the Cadillac of receivers (late '60s),
I wasn't aware of them then.  So I'm not assembling my dream station 25 years
late.

The '390A has a numerical readout dial that is typically accurate to within
a hundred Hz, but you hardly ever need more accuracy than that.  It is "rock"
stable; set it on a frequency and it'll stay there for weeks.  The Sangean
used to get intermods from a local 10KW AM station that was easily a couple
of miles away.  You never get that with the '390A.  The '390A has a 16 KHz
mechanical filter that delivers the best sounding AM I've ever heard (when
the band allows it...when it doesn't, pick another filter!), better than
any of those radios.  The '390A tunes below 500 KHz, if you know how to get
around it's limits (easy trick).  The R-390A is a better receiver than I had
in my last ham rig, the Kenwood TS-530S, and the IC-735 is the first receiver
I've ever owned that would flat outperform it.

What does the newer radio do that the R-390A doesn't?  Mostly it allows
computer control, memories and other programmability features.  These are
nice, but I can live without them (even though I have a computer interface
for my 735 with tons of memories on disk and other features I like...it's
just not _necessary_).  Portables like the Sangean don't do this either.
The IC-735 (and presumably R71A/R5000 class receivers) does better on SSB.
It doesn't have synchronous detection, like the 2010 (?), but most radios
don't.

I've told beginners before that the best receiver for the money they can
start out with is the R-390A.  They may find it too big and ugly, but it
will run rings around the typical $150 rig they'll find.  As Richard points
out, it is at its best monitoring AM SWBC, but there are mods out there
that make it a serviceable SSB rig.  I have one of the field mods in my
current one, but my previous R-390A had a mod from Ham Radio (nov. '75 comes
to mind) and it was even better at SSB.

As with life in general, everything new isn't necessarily better than 
everything old.  And vice versa.



Bob Lombardi WB4EHS     >>>>>>> Internet: blombardi@x102a.ess.harris.com
M/S 100-4844, Harris Corp GASD, P.O. Box 94000, Melbourne, FL 32902   
Family Values (FAM-uh-lee VAL-ews) n.  This year's zero-content phrase from
politicians and the media.  Used to distract attention from real problems.