In article .com,
"Les" wrote:

Telamon wrote:
In article .com,
"Les" wrote:

I had an "original" black faced R-390A in that same CY-979B
cabinet several years ago.



http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...5051&item=5761
820560&r
d=1&ssPageName=WDVW

What was it P. T. Barnum said?????????

Wow! The case actually shines. The unit looks brand spanking new.

I wonder if it is as nice on the inside as it is on the outside?

Over $3K though ouch!

-- Telamon Ventura, California


The auction has since been stopped and closed.

But, you might want to read this:

R-390 folks,

This is a followup to the thread: "Big bucks blackface 390A on the
e-place" about Item 5761820560, and is the story as I know it.

I got a call this morning from Howard Mills. He's the person I
referred to in my post to the R-390 list:

" ... A well known restorer of "black Collins" radios did a batch of
black R-390A panels not too long ago. I wonder if this is one from
that batch. ... "

In fact, it is. Howard shared with me some of the background on the
situation and suggested that I post the information here. This is the
story as I know it.

About a month ago Gary Baker, W3OG, had an R-390 and sold it to the
seller of Item 5761820560, Dr. Jan C. Robbins, N0JR. Dr. Robbins
wanted a black faced radio, apparently because he had a black
cabinet, so Gary took the radio to Howard. Howard noticed the
following:

1) The front panel was bent in the upper right corner.

2) The radio played well.

3) The nomenclature tag on the panel was a reproducton Collins tag of
the more common short size.

4) The PTO was a COSMOS unit, and the name tag on it had scuff marks
and scrapes.

5) The radio interior was moderately clean but by no means pristine.

6) The meters were of the type that do not have separate front
covers.

7) He did not determing what the manufacturer of the radio was. He
did not remove any modules although it appeard to him that the
modules in the radio were from various manufacturers, as is typical
of many R-390A's that have seen service and periodic depot
maintenance.

8) He did not do extensive electrical or mechanical restoration of
the radio, alignment, or cleaning, other than replacing the panel,
knobs and frequency readout escutcheon.

There was a discussion between Howard and Gary about Dr. Robbins'
desire to have the radio sent to another well known restorer of
R-390A's and keeper of an extensive web site on the subject. It was
Howard's opinion that the radio performed well and since it was
moderately clean to start with, the value added would not be worth
the cost. The well-known restorer was offered the job but delined
it.

Howard accepted the job of installing a refinished black front panel,
knobs and frquency readout escutcheon. The panel he installed was of
the type that uses a longer nomenclature tag. The tag on the
replaced panel was from Motorola. The panel, knobs, and frequency
readout escutcheon had been refinished with black satin powercoat
paint. The charge for the panel was adjusted upwards to account for
the need for metal restoration work on the exchange panel.

He re-installed the original meters without refinishing them. The
powder coating process he uses involves baking at over 500 degrees F
and only meter fronts that are separate from the meters can be
refinished this way. The heat would ruin the whole meter.

The now-blackfaced radio was shipped by Gary to Dr. Robbins within
the last few weeks. Dr. Robbins posted Item 5761820560 on Ebay on
March 20, 2005.

A background note on black faced R-390A's: Howard bought an R-390A
with a black panel at a hamfest about five years ago, and still has
it. The panel is black *anodized* aluminum, not painted, and appears
to be the original panel. Visitors to Howard's shop commented on the
black radio and so Howard refinished a batch of panels in black satin
powder coat paint. He now offers these panels on an exchange basis
for $150.00. Meter covers, knobs, and frequency readout escutcheons
are available also. Reports have been heard from time to time about
black faced R-390A's and the government agency that is supposed to
have used them. I don't have any good information from people who
were "there at the time". It appears that at least one batch of
R-390A'a was built with black anodized aluminum panels. The panels,
knobs, etc., that Howard offers are black satin power coated.

I summarize the situation. The quotes are from Ebay's auction Item
5761820560.

1) "This is my carefully collected, thoroughly restored,
intelligence-agency-black R-390A."

- Gary shipped a black-faced R-390A to Dr. Robbins within the last
few weeks. That radio had not been recently restored except for
newly refinished panel, knobs, and frequency readout escutcheon. The
finish used was black satin powder coat.

2) "...the radio has been perfectly aligned."

- No alignment was done recently to the radio shipped to Dr.
Robbins. That radio was working well and apparently not in need of
alignment. No thourough testing for such things as sensitivity, IF
alignment, BFO calibration, PTO endpoint errors, HF crystal
oscillator peaking, or the like had been done on it.

3) "I have compared this receiver on CW, SSB, and AM in hundreds of
A/B tests with my Icom IC-775DSP."

- Comparisons with the radio Gary sent to Dr. Robbins would have been
done in the last week or two.

4) "It is mechanically, electronically, operationally and
cosmetically as close to perfect as any R-390A you'll ever find
anywhere, and absolutely beautiful. When you first take it out of
the box YOU'LL THINK IT JUST CAME FROM THE FACTORY--NO EXAGGERATION
(only the rear panel reveals this receiver has ever been used)."

- The radio recently shipped to Dr. Robbins by Gary had a moderately
clean but not pristine interior, the meters had been removed
(unsoldered) and replaced in the refinished panel, the COSMOS PTO has
scratched and damaged label, and the modules in the radio appeared to
have been a collection of various modules from normal depot overhaul
and maintenance.


5) "( ... this is the best by far). I have had great pleasure
restoring it to that highest level, and I do not like to see it go,
but I am ageing and near retirement ... "

- The radio shipped to Dr Robbins by Gary was not pristine inside
and had not been completely restored in the manner expected from
Howard or the well known restorer of R-390A's who declined to work on
it.

- It appears that Dr. Robbins is 61 years old.

6) "Third, the receiver comes with a NEW-STYLE SSB CONVERTER that
simply attaches to "line," "AGC" and ground connections on rear of
radio; no internal mods. "

- In the past a sealed module was offered that attaches to the
R-390 in the same manner that creates audio-derived AGC voltage. An
article appeared in Hollow State News about the module, and reported
poor performance compared to the radio's normal AGC system. The
module was taken apart and found to consist of one diode, one
capacitor and one resistor, the values of which were reported. The
author may have been Dallas Lankford. The module reported on was
supposed to help in AGC action while receiving SSB signals, *not*
convert IF signals to audio as other SSB adapters or internal
receiver modifications do.

7) " METERS ARE ALL ORIGINAL(!), a rarity. I wanted to keep them
that way, so didn't powder coat." " ...the inside is as clean and
neat as the outside, ...."

- It is the sellers opinion that original meters on an R-390A are
rare. Other workers familiar with the radio find that meter-less
radios or radios with substitute meters are the less common.

- The meters on the radio shipped recently to Dr. Robbins had no
removable front bezel and so could not be powder coated.

- The front panel of the radio shipped recently to Dr. Robbins had
been recently refinished in powder coat paint. The interior was clean
but not pristine.


8) "Cabinet is FACTORY NEW (yes, BRAND NEW!!), a shiny
intelligence-agency-black milspec CY-979A, the only new black one I
have ever seen."

- In the last couple of years, a number of new CY-979A cabinets were
available from Mac McCullough. It is not clear if any of those were
black. It has been reported that those cabinets came from a military
source. The three at this location appear to be genuine military
equipment and arrived in new condition.

- The front panel of the radio recently shipped to Dr. Robbins is
black satin powder coat and would not match a shiny finished cabinet.


9) "NOTE: NOTE: I should have mentioned that Bidder ID is kept
private in this auction to protect the privacy of honest bidders. A
growing number of dishonest individuals make it a practice to contact
and even harass those who bid on someone else's listed items, and I
don't intend to help them. "

- A (possibly growing) number of Ebay sellers make Bidders ID's
private to allow them to cooperate with someone who dishonestly bids
the item up in price with no intention of actually buying it. This
may entice bidders from such places as Germany and Japan to become
interested in the item, and bid more for it than they would if they
knew its true condition. The world of gambling uses the words "shill"
"mark" and "patsy" to describe this activity.

- Reports have been seen of extreme dissatisfaction among auction
winners when they asked Ebay to help resolve issues with sellers.

- It is unclear whether a seller of an item with private Bidders ID's
has access to the bidding information, but a noble step would be to
ask all bidders if they mind revealing that information later and
make it available.

10) "... dishonest individuals make it a practice to contact and even
harass those who bid on someone else's listed items, and I don't
intend to help them. "

- I belive I am an honest individual, and I certainly would send a
copy of this to bidders of Item 5761820560 if I could. My intention
would be to help them understand clearly the nature of what appears
to be offered.

That is the situation as I know it.

The persons name who posted this has been deleted.


I'm going to have to rename you Paul Harvey since this appears to be the
rest of the story.

I would not participate in an auction where the bidders were not known.
This can only lead to mischief.

The formating in this post made it hard to read so I made an attempt to
fix it not knowing what it originally looked like. What happens is that
people use two spaces between sentences and when quoted causes the
paragraphs to get broken up.

Thanks for posting this information.

--
Telamon
Ventura, California