Provenance
Back around 1995 I was visiting my brother-in-law down in Maryland. He said there was this great army-navy store in downtown Baltimore that we had to check out. H & H Outdoors. As I remember the upstairs was pretty typical of modern day army-navy stores. Lots of fairly cheap, chinese made camping gear. But then we went downstairs, where the real surplus stuff was hanging out. Walking past a row of gray metal shelves I stopped in my tracks and was staring at 2 big gray metal boxes. Side by side, an R-390 and an R-390A. Both pretty beat up and ugly. $100 a piece.

I wasn't in the market back then. I already had a working EAC and another Motorola waiting to go up on the bench. I wasn't really aware of the differences between the A and non-A, and even the fact that one of them was a Collins didn't move me at all. Just 2 more boatanchors that might be nice to have. But I wasn't in the mood to part with $200. And then to ask my brother-in-law to help me lug them up and out onto the streets, and then find his car and then drive them back to his house etc. etc. So, a bit wistfully, I left them there and eventually forgot about them. Fast forward to Christmas morning, I walk into the living room and there are two big black plastic garbage bags with ribbons tied to them sitting on the floor. With suspiciously very square contours on the bottom. The two radios were my Christmas present from my wife. The absolute best gifts I have ever received. So they went into the radio room and found their way to the floor under the bottom shelf. And over time other stuff got piled in front of them. And I forgot about them again. Then in the summer of 2015 I got bitten by the Collins Collector Bug. I bought a broken 30L-1 on eBay. The guy said it had melted tubes and that's all he knew. I paid too much for it of course but I took a chance and got the thing going. Then I decided I needed a KWM-2 and started making plans to get one. In the midst of my KWM-2 fever I had a slight memory recall of a Collins tag sitting on an R-390 somewhere. I went over to the bottom shelf and started pulling stuff away from it. There was the forgotten R-390 still sitting on the floor. It immediately went up on the bench. I started pulling it apart, and that's where this story begins.

Provenance

Back around 1995 I was visiting my brother-in-law down in Maryland. He said there was this great army-navy store in downtown Baltimore that we had to check out. H & H Outdoors. As I remember the upstairs was pretty typical of modern day army-navy stores. Lots of fairly cheap, chinese made camping gear. But then we went downstairs, where the real surplus stuff was hanging out. Walking past a row of gray metal shelves I stopped in my tracks and was staring at 2 big gray metal boxes. Side by side, an R-390 and an R-390A. Both pretty beat up and ugly. $100 a piece.

I wasn't in the market back then. I already had a working EAC and another Motorola waiting to go up on the bench. I wasn't really aware of the differences between the A and non-A, and even the fact that one of them was a Collins didn't move me at all. Just 2 more boatanchors that might be nice to have. But I wasn't in the mood to part with $200. And then to ask my brother-in-law to help me lug them up and out onto the streets, and then find his car and then drive them back to his house etc. etc. So, a bit wistfully, I left them there and eventually forgot about them.

Fast forward to Christmas morning, I walk into the living room and there are two big black plastic garbage bags with ribbons tied to them sitting on the floor. With suspiciously very square contours on the bottom. The two radios were my Christmas present from my wife. The absolute best gifts I have ever received. So they went into the radio room and found their way to the floor under the bottom shelf. And over time other stuff got piled in front of them. And I forgot about them again.

Then in the summer of 2015 I got bitten by the Collins Collector Bug. I bought a broken 30L-1 on eBay. The guy said it had melted tubes and that's all he knew. I paid too much for it of course but I took a chance and got the thing going. Then I decided I needed a KWM-2 and started making plans to get one. In the midst of my KWM-2 fever I had a slight memory recall of a Collins tag sitting on an R-390 somewhere. I went over to the bottom shelf and started pulling stuff away from it. There was the forgotten R-390 still sitting on the floor. It immediately went up on the bench. I started pulling it apart, and that's where this story begins.