Collins R-390A Military Shortwave/HF Receiver Tuned to 6855--Spanish Lady Spy Numbers Station

[mnpd007]

Using numbers against a one-time code pad is unbreakable. At least the FBI/CIA hasn't been able to. Also, a clandestine agent needs only a department store radio in his possession in case he is caught... no smoking gun type 007 type spy gear to incriminate him. Numbers stations have declined in the past 20-years, but they are still there. I was aligning an old HQ-129x on the bench one night and kept picking up a computerized child's voice numbers station as I was setting the coils.

[mnpd007]

Decades ago when I was attending OBC at Ft. McClellan, the MARS manager was a neat guy who let hams have the key to the MARS building. The station sat on a high hill, had all Collins gear, R-390a (forget the matching transmitter/amp models). Show-stopper was the antenna; a rotatable football-field sized log periodic so high in the air it had aircraft warning lights. DX pileup?.... no such thing. When I keyed down the competition had to quit.... it became MY frequency.

[JockoFlocko]

Fantastic radio and a great background on it. Thank you for sharing. I would absolutely love to get my hands on one of these for receiving in my HAM shack as the receive capabilities of the R-390A far surpass that of ALL of my current Solid State modern rigs. Great video.

[Rehdman6444]

Had an opportunity to use one of these gadgets while serving with USAFSS at RAF Chicksands in the UK back in the 60's. Captured some inches of tape of Kruschev's pilot as the plane took the premier home after a state visit. Thanks for the nostalgic visit to the past.

[williamtobinjr]

@florida0631 A Russian spy ring was busted in the USA within the past couple of years. They had shortwave radios in their possession. The spy numbers station you hear in this recording is broadcast out of Radio Havana Cuba with a booming signal that can hit the entire USA. You do the math...

;-)

You could be right, though. It has long been speculated that the Cuban spy transmissions are a mere red herring they have created to send our intelligence agencies on a wild goose chase...

[Foxfire5100]

It's not a radio unless it has knobs !!

I also sat with 2 of these babies in front of me for almost 4 years, used an R-390 copying CW overseas in Germany and Turkey during the cold war. But it's a great radio, reliable, and will stand up in adverse environments. Thanks for the hearing loss and tinitus R390!! Thank you for the video, brings back some good times away from the rack.

[higgme1ster]

Spies don't communicate this way.

Google the acronym MIJI ( pronounced me-gee). It stands for MEACONING, INTRUSION, JAMMING, AND INTERFERENCE.

[williamtobinjr]

@higgme1ster With all due respect, I beg to differ. Spies continue to communicate via shortwave numbers transmissions even affter the Cold War ended. In fact, the Russian spy ring that was busted last year (the one with the hot chick who made all the headlines)...when those guys were busted, they were in poseession of shortwave radios and 'one-time pads' (the decoding books required to decode a numbers transmission).

[higgme1ster]

@williamtobinjr - The theoretical perfect security of the one-time-pad only applies in a theoretically perfect setting; no real-world implementation of any cryptosystem can provide perfect security because practical considerations introduce potential vulnerabilities. These considerations of security and convenience have meant that the one-time-pad is, in practice, little-used. Implementation difficulties have led to one-time pad systems being broken. 

[higgme1ster]

@williamtobinjr This Serious drawback has prevented the one-time pad from being adopted as a widespread tool in information security. One-time pads solve few current practical problems in cryptography. High quality ciphers are widely available and their security is not considered a major worry at present. Such ciphers are almost always easier to employ than one-time pads; the amount of key material which must be properly generated and securely distributed is far smaller.

[Delfinmar]

@higgme1ster :

They sure do brother. Every day and in every american city.

[higgme1ster]

That is not a Spy number transmission. It is intentional Signal Jamming to deny the frequencies use to their enemy. I experianced the same thing 1978 when I was stationed overseas. The US Navy triangulated the signal to East Berlin and reported that it was a known and documented MIJI. In that instance it was random numbers spoken by a female voice in German and it blasted our HF Radio Teletype tonepack off the air. We had it happen numerious times in the two years I was there.

[NSNorfolk]

Nice Radio ! Thanks for the video, Chuck Rippel, WA4HHG

[williamtobinjr]

@NSNorfolk Thanks, Chuck!!! Are you still restoring these radios?

[rbratcherjr]

My R-390a is the main shortwave reciever in my home. Great vacuum tube radio for either general listening or serious DX'ing!!

[teamfab]

Now thats a mighty handsom radio, the old gear just bites you..

[KutWrite]

The broadcast was probably a diversion from real communications. This is too easy to bust.

Nice set!

[williamtobinjr]

@KutWrite Thanks for watching and commenting on my radio! However, you're not correct in stating that this type of communication is easy to crack. Intelligence agencies have been using shortwave numbers transmissions since the dawn of the Cold War to communicate with their covert agents in the field, and not a single transmission has EVER been successfully decrypted! That's because only two people on the planet have the necessary 'one time pad' needed to decode: the sender and the spy! 

[CrewCheef]

Enjoyed this video. Brought back some memories. I sat with 2 of these in front of me with one in each ear for 3 years. Thanks.

[usm7j]

@CrewCheef Yeah Cheef, did same-same from 70-73. Hacking all those dits has definitely left me with permanent hearing loss (tinitus?). Still wouldn't have traded it for anything in the world.

[LesbianVampireLover]

Excellent, and thanx for posting this! I especially liked the comments about the spy ring. It almost seems quaint that in this 21st century, they would be receiving instructions the "old fashioned way", rather than coded Internet transmissions!

[MrGramophone]

Thank you for letting us see, and hear such a wonderful wireless receiver. I would agree with you that it may be the finest all-valve receiver ever designed. But then I am biased: we have one here!

[williamtobinjr]

itaRomeo, This video was recorded/posted in October 2009. Within the past couple of months, V2a transmissions on 6855 (and 7887) seem to have vanished. Strange since they were VERY regular broadcasts. Interestingly enough, they disappeared not long before the big Russian spy ring bust that got so much publicity. Is there a connection? Possibly. Who knows? But those that were arrested were said to have received their instructions via shortwave radio.

[itaRomeo]

When this video are made?

[beel8ed]

Thanks so much for posting this wonderful video.

[njmikec]

Handsome radio and a nice restoration. Rick is a real master. Nice to see '390 so well preserved.