Never Seen THIS before...

[Sandy G]

Collinses have a mystique about them, somewhat like MacIntosh, SX-1980s, or G-33Ks. Actually MOST R-390As are NOT made by Collins, supposedly only about 1000 or so of the very early 1955 contract were. But ALL R-389s, & R-391s were Collins made. Do you have the Power Supply for the Autotune w/yours? I don't, I've never seen the Autotune on mine work... About half of the R-390s were made by Collins, Motorola made the rest. Even if yours has a "Collins" nameplate on it doesn't guarantee it IS one though...After they went thru Army depot rebuild a couple of times, they generally became pretty scrambled. The Collins modules had a peculiar looking "6" on the serial #s, & had certain-colored paint dots...Even that method of IDing them isn't 100%, though. I'm lucky enuff to have a 1955-contract R-390A that IS all-Collins, it was "gone thru" by R-390A guru Rick Mish, who proclaimed it genuine. Only thing we could figure out is that it had been in a lab somewhere, or was some general's personal set, & had escaped rough use, & being "depot-dawged" to death.