These are not particularly rare receivers as over 50,000 of them were produced between 1954 and 1985 but no serious collection would be complete without one. The R390A/URR is simply a superb performer, exceptionally stable, very good filters and stations appear to leap out at you from the low background noise. From an operating point of view, the mechanical tuning on this particular receiver can hardly be described as silky smooth and appears to be more consistent to turning a child proof cap on a bottle of Aspirin.

My receiver was manufactured by EAC (Electronic Assistance Corporation) in 1971 and was going to require quite a lot of work to refurbish it properly. Both side, front and rear panels, frequency dial cover/lens, the bath tub capacitor and AE change over relay on the rear panel all required replacing. In fact I came to the conclusion that only the modules were worth salvaging and the rest scrapped.

Ebay came to the rescue and a nice Stewart Warner chassis was soon purchased. This cost me as much as the receiver and came complete with a nicely restored front panel and a set of newly manufactured top and bottom dust covers.

I still needed to source plenty of other components to complete the receiver, including the RF deck cover, a Cosmos PTO cover, a couple of IF screening cans, the mechanical filter and crystal sub-chassis screening covers, the retaining clip for HR202, a ballast tube. two 26Z5W rectifiers, a control knob for the BFO and some springs for the Oldham coupler. I thought it was going to be a major task finding all these components until I met Hank(KN6DI) selling some gear on ebay. I discovered that Hank could supply me with just about everything I required and at some very realistic prices to boot. Unfortunately I don't have permission to publish his email address but I can tell you that his ebay handle is "stuff4u-me".

Above we can see the RF racks after a good polish and the gearbox mech after cleaning with the best part of a large can of WD40. This module is not with it's problems though. The main bush on the tuning shaft has come adrift and one of the operating rods for a slug is broken. These are relatively small problems. My main concern is that several contacts on the wafer switches are damaged and these require replacing. I'm not very confident in being able to replace these so I may have to look for another RF deck. Good examples of these don't often surface so I may have to wait for quite some time before I am able to finally fit the covers on this beauty.

This is a picture of the finished PSU module. Two new rectifiers have been installed, the supply voltage links changed to 240Vac and the transformer primed and given a new coat of paint.

The IF deck is shown here after it had been thoroughly cleaned and all the valve cans polished. A new ballast tube has been fitted and several IF cans replaced due to being damaged. On the right you can see the results of a few evenings spent recapping everything with 400 volt Sprague Orangedrops purchased as a kit from KK4DF. These are not my choice of component as I think they are physically too large for the job but there are plenty of 390 experts out there that swear by them. As is normal when restoring these receivers, I've replaced the carrier adj pot with a 10 turn equivalent and carried out the AF response modifications which produces a more mellow sound to the audio.

These are the rebuilt C603 and C606 capacitors prior to the cans being Araldited back in place. The cans were carefully cut off with a hack saw and the old capacitor material discarded. The sawn ends on the bases and cans were then cleaned up using a bench grinder. The aluminum lugs on the bases were cut off and 2mm holes were drilled into them to take some small brass screw eyes, similar to those used to hang picture frames. Once these were firmly screwed in place, modern Xicon electrolyitics were soldered to them.

These are some images of the recapped AF deck with the reworked C603 and C606 capacitors installed. The surface corrosion on the transformers was repaired and then given a new paint job to match the mains transformer. Rather remove these component's and disturb the below chassis wiring, the fixings on the transformers were loosened sufficient enough to allow masking tape to be positioned underneath. The rest of the AF deck was then masked off using newspaper prior to being resprayed.

Just to give you an idea of how things are progressing to date, I've temporarily assembled all the modules to the chassis and fitted the control knobs in place. The more knowledgable amongst you will notice that the RF deck was absent in the right hand image. This was still under review on the repair bench.

Comparing these images to those at the top of the page highlights what can be achieved given time, spare parts and more importantly, a realistic budget. I don't consider myself skilled in the art of restoring these old receivers but if I were pressed to come up with one piece of information I could pass on to a novice it would be - choose your project receiver very carefully. If I had purchased a R390a that was in super condition, recapped, realigned and fault free, it would have cost me a fraction of what this project has cost me to date and it's still far from being completed. Besides the problems I have with the RF deck I still have plenty of other jobs to do including sourcing a missing control knob, installing the mains lead, testing all the valves, recapping the RF deck and then re-aligning everything after repairing any other faults I may find.

I don't suppose many collectors would consider obtaining a presentable receiver in the same way a restorer would but this is our hobby and we get an immense amount of enjoyment from transforming these old girls from maids to models.

• Circuit - 26 valve, double and triple conversion, 2xRF and 6xIF stages
• Frequency range - 0.5-32Mhz
• Sensitivity - uV CW or uV RT for 20dB signal to noise
• Phones - 600 ohms
• Weight - 65lb
• Supply - 110/220VAC 48-62Hz, 2 25W
• Dimensions - 19"w x 10.5"h x 17.25"d