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Now THAT'S some "Heavy Metal", that is...My EK-07 is West German, & it apparently spent a LOT of time quaffin' brewskis at the Hofbrau Haus, 'cos it weighs in at a rather porcine 152 lbs...Not many radios can make an R-390A look svelte, but Der Weinerschnitzel does...It was designed in the mid-late 1950s as a cost-be-damned general purpose receiver for the newly re-formed Bundeswehr. Operator ease, receiving superiority, & stability were prime design concerns. Size, weight, cost, complexity, were of little or no consequence. Incredible selectivity was a hallmark of these sets-their ability to ferret out a Combloc fleapower source deliberately placed adjacent to the VOA, BBC, Deutsche Welle, or one of the other Western blowtorches was almost unbelievable. So was their sensitivity-I've been able to pull in one-lunger daytimers from Kentucky, Virginia & North Carolina w/it, stations whose range is usually barely even the local county line. There were only about 1000 made 1958-73 thereabouts, & possibly no more than 3-4 dozen in this country. It has 25 "Rohren"-tubes, & a fair number of transistors. It even has a built in self-diagnostic test, which is kinda advanced for then. This marvel cost the Germans some $6K back in the early-mid '60s, which partially explains why there are relatively so few of them. Even today, some aspects of its use are classified, & its rumored, that like its American counterpart, the R-390A, it is still in use somewhat by the German army.
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Benevolent Despot
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