The 265th Radio Research Company used many radios in their service in Vietnam from 1967 to 1972, but the R-390A HF (high-frequency) receiver they donated to the Rockwell Collins museum was something special, they said.
“This has been a workhorse,” said Doug Bonnot of Jonesboro, Tenn., the president of the Radio Research Company Veteran Group .
Bonnot said he doubted that there was anyone who worked in uniform for the Army Security Agency, Air Force Security Service, Naval Security group or Marine Radio Battalion who doesn’t remember the R-390 HF receiver fondly.
The receiver was so capable that it was considered top secret, the veterans said. It is now a favorite of amateur radio operators, who sometimes pay to buy and restore them.
Bonnot said members of his unit worked long hours at the radios day-in and day-out monitoring communications. Potentially valuable radio intelligence was recorded and passed off to other specialists who could decode and translate them, Bonnot said.
“You were in a battle every day,” Bonnot said. “Your weapon is a radio, and your stock and trade is information the enemy put out over the radio.”
Lawrence Robinson, who oversees Rockwell Collins’ corporate museum, said almost everything in the museum has been donated to the company. He thanked the group for the 1952-vintage radio, one of the earlier models produced.
The radios were designed by Collins Radio, now Rockwell Collins, and many were manufactured by the company in Cedar Rapids. Many were made by other companies under defense contracts. About 20,000 of the 55,000-plus R-390 HF receivers made came from Collins.
“The stories about this radio are legendary,” Robinson said. “There are still urban legends circulating that there are old-timers deep in the bowels of these three-letter agencies using them.”
Robinson said the United States government shredded “literally thousands” of the radios, apparently to keep them out of the wrong hands when they were no longer needed.
Rockwell Collins has had a corporate museum since 1983 for its clients and employees.
