Farmers Unite!!

[jeyurkon]

Did it use a motor generator set?

John

[Sandy G]

Not sure. Apparently, jeeps & other military vehicles back then put out 24-28VDC instead of the 6-12VDC civilian vehicles did...An R-392 will work w/24VDC, but just not as well...They're roughly similar to the size of a case of 8.5 X 11 office paper, & weigh 55lbs, & have 2 handles on the sides...The ones I've seen can be kinda scuzzy on the outside, but usually look brand-new inside, since they are "sealed"...Most of the tubes are common, but there's one audio tube that's a bit odd...Sometimes they're found w/a SS audio module, but it is virtually identical to the tube in output & fidelity..They're maybe not quite as "good" as a std R-390 or 390A, but, OTOH, I've never really hooked mine up to anything more involved than a length of speaker wire for an antenna...And they DO seem to be somewhat more robust than a 390...I even have the matching transmitter, a T-195.

[jr_tech]

Nice! I found this about the R-392:

"It operates from 24-28 volt DC power with no vibrators, dynamotors or other voltage converters."

http://www.roveroresearch.org/r392/r392.html

Add: oops, I see the site lists one for sale, so I guess I should add "not affiliated".

jr

[7"estatdef]

Pulled out one of my favorite farm sets to take her for a spin. It's a Philco 37-33 I got back in '87 in Kentucky at a radio swap. It was a mess rusty, no dial scale or speaker. The speaker was interesting because it connected directly to the output tube which in this case is a 1E7 dual pentode wired for push pull operation. So the speaker had a center tap. Anyway it got replaced with an eight inch Jensen w/matching transformer. Chaiss got cleaned up and a coat of black wrinkle, back then couldn't get hammertone and a repro dial was found for it. Refinished the cabinet and touched up the flash finish front panel. When it was finished it worked great! The 1E7 will make about 1/2watt of audio. Doesn't seem like much but it's plenty loud and very clean. The whole set draws 15ma B+ and .5a @ 2v. The picture of the speaker is from ebay as one was just sold a few days ago. (not mine)
Terry