Collins R-390 (1951 contract)
This Collins manufactured R-390 is the only other piece of Collins gear I own besides the KWM-2A. When this receiver came to me it was missing all the small front panel knobs, the PTO was in pieces, a bank of the variable inductors had all the flexible tuning shaft thingies broken off, and the PTO shaft coupler was missing. After taking care of those problems, I rewired something involving the power transformer center-tap, latched onto a genuine power connector, replaced an intermittent silver mica capacitor in the power supply and also had to replace one of the 6082's.
It was darned well worth the effort though. The R-390 is simply in a class by itself. I just wish I had one of the SSB adapters to use with it.
Below: an above deck view inside the R-390. It's truly a mechanical marvel with all the revolving gears and cams and pistons going up and down.
Below: an underside or below deck view of the inside of the R-390.
I realized as I was taking this picture that nearly half the tubes in the R390 are below deck. The below deck view of the R-390 could just as well be an above deck view in an ordinary receiver.
