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I've been working on aligning a military R-392 on and off for a few months. I don't think it has SSB but it's the coolest jeep mounted 60 pound boatanchor ever. 20 some tubes, operates on 28 volts and covers 500k through 32 MHz. Not as good as a R-390/A but they don't come in olive drab with nifty carry handles. Just for kicks, I set up a military whip antenna on the top of my shed. The farthest I've picked up is Cuba just after dark. I'll probably wait till fall or winter rolls around again to get back into it. Good hobby though.
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Jun 12, 2007 22:20
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 14:52 |
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I bought Passport to World Band radio, World Radio TV Handbook and The ARRL Antenna Book about 4 months ago. I got a good deal on the ARRL book since the cover is creased and the CD is smashed. Way to go warehouse handling (I hate the bastards in the dairy warehouse for smashing my eggs all the time). I have to get around to reading these sometime. I've been reading Old Time Radios! on and off for the last 8 months. Anything remotely technical puts me right off to sleep after 3 pages. I refuse to look at any of the new digital radios for fear of wanting one and further increasing my debt. Besides, I'd probably buy one, listen to it for like a couple weeks tops then move onto something else.
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Jun 14, 2007 22:05
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I heard a guy had good reception by running a folded wire antenna in his attic. Basically a big square shaped length of wire up as high as you can get it seems to work ok. An old Army manual from the 50's says if you are going to run a wire up a tree, dead trees work best. I'd try running a length of wire around the top of your walls near the ceiling of your room. You can experiment with the number of turns and total length. It's worth a shot.
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Jun 15, 2007 03:20
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I broke down and ordered a Sony ICF-SW7600GR. It's synchronous selectable sideband broke the tie with the Eton G5. I did have to buy the AC power supply seperately from Universal Radio though. Sony just couldn't seem to make a supply that doesn't cause interference and include it with the radio. I guess that would make the Eton the easiest buy since I suppose it has everything with it. I would have bought an Eton E1 if I had a little more credit left. A modern digital tuner is also a helpful tool in testing out older vintage tube receivers. The author of Fixing Up Nice Old Radios listed off several uses for them. I think one was tuning in the local oscillator to check if it's on frequency. Fixing vacuum tube equipment is one of the few hobbies I've enjoyed on and off over the last 10 years. I always come back to it after doing other things for a while. There's just something magical about that soft orange glow in a glass bottle. Is there a term for feeling nostalgic about an era you never lived in?
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Jun 16, 2007 06:16
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Ya I have 2 Zenith Transoceanics from the 50s. They are tube models. Anything after 1963 is solid state. If it's anything like the 50s models it should have the date stamped on the case. They are pretty decent if aligned correctly but unless they improved the design in their solid state models, they have a limited frequency coverage. I think mine cover small bands from AM broadcast up to 18 MHZ. I think what they do cover is some of the busier parts of the bands though. I have several old radios that have full coverage. You can turn the dial through a whole band and not hear but a few signals. These were expensive well made radios in their time. The models I have retailed for $130 new in a time when $1500 would buy you a new car. They were frequently used on yachts and while traveling by people that were well off. It should have a telescopic antenna that's hopefully in one piece. Tell me the model number and I'll look up the details in either the book I have or several sites I have bookmarked. The R-7000 was the only one to offer continuous coverage from 1.8 to 30 MHz. For the running total on how much you got people to spend on radios; radio was $147.95 with free shipping and the AC adapter was 24.90 including shipping. Paperweight fucked around with this message at 05:29 on Jun 17, 2007 |
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Jun 17, 2007 05:23
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So do the newer radios have a ground connection on them or does the antenna itself have to be grounded? My only experience is with older radios that have seperate antenna and ground connections. If you used a piece of wire to touch the antenna and ground connections together, the signal would be cut in half. I think the signal comes in through the antenna, passes through a transformer then out to ground. I have no idea how a newer radio works. I mentioned before I have 2 old portable Transoceanics. These are some of the radios I experimented on (now lying in pieces, but still useable with work). They didn't pick up much of anything untill I grounded the ground terminal. Then bam, all kinds of decent reception and sci-fi noises. I read somewhere that AM transmits a lot of it's signal through the earth. On some transmitter antennas, it's standard to have at least 120 underground radials. I think this applies to lower frequencies mostly. By day it seems the lower frequencies are about the only thing you can pick up. At night time you get everything. Winter causes all kinds of signal bounce in the atmosphere. One winter night on CB I talked with a guy in Canada like he was 2 miles away clear as a bell. A lot of the older tube radios are AC/DC transformerless models that are kind of dangerous to use. One side of the AC plug is connected either directly or through a capacitor to the chassis. Be careful kids. Paperweight fucked around with this message at 08:33 on Jun 17, 2007 |
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Jun 17, 2007 08:06
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Went down to my shed and dug out the R-392 and decided to work on it. I need a 1 mA full scale deflection 17 ohm analog meter for it. The original meters were pulled when decomissioned due to radioactive dial paint. The government was never shy about exposing soldiers to danger.  Sorry about the cheap camera. I couldn't get the radio to pick up much of anything. The above mentioned meter is part of a gain circuit and might be a cause of poor reception. That and a previous owner decided to modify it to run a power cable in one of the holes for the spare fuse holder. God only knows what else he did. It more than likely needs a tune up and alignment. It has inductive tuning and a rack of gears and cams so it can cover 500 KHz to 32 MHz. I have a junker 392 for spare parts and something to look at and figure out how it's supposed to go back together. Oh and it has that wonderful military surplus store smell. It smells like it can get the job done.
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Jun 18, 2007 01:55
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Had my first late night listening session where I didn't have to get up in the morning to go to work. I heard a lot of ham traffic on 3600 KHz and up. Got to try out the SSB adjustment. On plain old AM broadcast, I picked up an Atlanta, GA news station on 750 KHz from here in Lexington, NC. Picked up what I guess are standards stations or beacons at 10000 and 3330 KHz. They gave the time every once in a while. I made a 1/8" mono plug with aligator leads coming out of it to try external antennas. The hot tip I clipped onto a wire strung about 30 feet up in a tree. I had a 3 prong AC plug with screw terminals laying around. I attached a green wire to it's ground prong only. I plugged it into the wall outlet and connected the ground connection of the 1/8" plug to it. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't. When I set the radio to scan with it grounded, it stops every 5 KHz even if there isn't a signal. I wonder if it is just increasing the noise. The Sony ICF-SW7600GR runs voltage to the 1/8" jack to power the optional AN-LP1 active antenna. It warns in the manual to not use any other plug than their's. If you are careful and don't touch the connections together and short the batteries for long periods of time, I figure any 1/8" plug will work. I went and ordered an AN-LP1 off eBay since they are nowhere to be found in America. It was $89 for the antenna and $15 for shipping from Japan. Add $104 to the running total my good man.
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Jun 24, 2007 16:05
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It's a fully encased 3 prong plug. It's usually used for replacing broken ends on drop cords. I've been using it for months now and haven't died horribly unfortunately. The hot and neutral are very well separated from the ground connection. I used 600 volt insulated wire as well. I used to use the outlet cover screw for a ground connection on AM projects as a kid. What does it mean by ground then? Some of us are a little dense and need to be filled in.
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Jun 24, 2007 19:27
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Just got my AN-LP1 today. buyfromjapan is selling them on eBay. Only took 5 days to get here. That's good in my book. I had some gun parts take 2 weeks to get here from Virgina. They must have been relaying my package on foot. Now that I've been warned, I think I'll sink some copper pipe into the ground near my shed/shop for an RF ground. One Ham said find a way to hook a water hose to one end and it will bury itself into the dirt like butter. We'll see this weekend. Edit: Found several misc. lengths of copper tubing with a pointed end perfect for driving into the ground. Dad was going to use them to make wind chimes. Read somewhere that you can use shorter rods but you need more of them and they need to be attached with high guage wire. This is going to be fun. 2nd Edit: I think this is the only antenna buyfromjapan sells. Well, I think it's the only one Sony made for portables and then up and discontinued without a replacement model. Sadly they must have broke the bank dumping money into the PS3. Paperweight fucked around with this message at 02:35 on Jun 26, 2007 |
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Jun 25, 2007 22:21
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Just got done soldering connections and burying my ground rods. Go into the house to get something to drink and what do you know, the power's out. Now I'm bored what do I do? Whip out the Sony and try out the AN-LP1. It picked up some good signals. Without it they wouldn't be listenable with just the built in antenna. And it was 4 in the afternoon. I think I picked up a Spanish female voice numbers station on 7885 (I think that was the freq.) Now that the power's back on I think I'm starting to feel the effects of a sunburn on my bald head and neck. Go figure. Last night I took all of my old R-392 apart to clean and align. I always dred starting up a project but I get really involved once I get going. This time around I'll be very patient and not smash the poo poo out of something when it breaks. Edit: No, I didn't ground the AN-LP1. I have a bunch of old vacuum tube AM radios that do need to be grounded. They all have A and G screw terminals. Since people have been telling me that using AC ground as a connection is dangerous, I went and pounded 3 four foot copper tubes 6' apart in the dirt to act as a RF ground point. I then run wire between them and soldered them together and then run a lead into my shed. Using copper clamps and 6 guage wire would have worked better but I didn't have any handy. I don't expect this to hold up to a lightning strike but if it makes an ok ground I'll be happy. Paperweight fucked around with this message at 23:15 on Jun 27, 2007 |
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Jun 27, 2007 22:29
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I'm also of the old school vacuum tube AM broadcast and shortwave radio fandom. I just haven't got around to fixing all of them up yet. 1941 Sears Silvertone battery tabletop, AM broadcast 1939 RCA battery portable, AM broadcast 1953 military ANGR-5 (1.5 - 18MHz) 50s or 60s military R-392 (500 KHz - 30 MHz) WW2 era U-100R military portable (500KHz - 18MHz) 1936 RCA K-10 console with the wonderful cat's eye tuning indicator (500KHz - 60MHz) 50s Transoceanic portables X 2 1958 Bogen mono AM/FM receiver The audio output tube on the battery radios only produces about a 1/4 watt or less but they get surprisingly loud through their 60+ year old speakers. Most of the common radio tubes are inexpensive and come in their original boxes from the 30s through the 60s. It's neat to fix up and restore a classic radio just for a hobby.
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Oct 12, 2008 06:15
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 14:52 |
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I was thinking about making a new post in the DIY & Hobbies thread about rebuilding a R-392 500k-32MHz receiver. After 5 years, I finally located an original mildly radioactive signal level meter for it. Anyway, I was wondering if anyone would be interested in that or radio restoration in general. Edit: Yay, my first thread created. Wonder how well it will be received and I hope it doesn't get gassed. Paperweight fucked around with this message at 02:04 on Nov 5, 2012 |
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Nov 3, 2012 21:45
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