Ted Robinson brings a rare combination to the R-390A community: a Yale engineering education, more than six decades of amateur radio experience dating to his 1959 Novice license as KN1QAR, and an unshakeable conviction — backed by meticulous analysis — that Art Collins’ R-390A and KWM-2 designs are capable of performance far beyond their nominal specifications when properly overhauled. Operating from Fairhaven, Massachusetts, Ted has built a body of technical work spanning R-390A performance optimization, high-power magnetic loop antenna design, and Collins equipment restoration that places him squarely among the community’s most accomplished practitioner-engineers.

R390A.com — A Technical Resource

Ted maintains R390A.com — hosted through his Bulldog Trust site at x44.cc — as a curated collection of R-390A technical resources that reflect his engineering approach to the receiver. The site includes a performance analysis examining what the R-390A is actually capable of achieving when every module is properly aligned and every component is within specification, a detailed overhaul checklist and discussion, a comparative design analysis of the R-390 versus the R-390A, a hints and kinks collection drawn from practical restoration experience, and a guide to tuning the R-390A on the 630-meter amateur band — extending the receiver’s utility into a frequency range its designers never anticipated.

Ted also authored the R-390A Engineering Analysis hosted on r-390a.net, examining the Collins cost reduction program that produced the R-390A from the original R-390 design. This document traces the engineering decisions Collins made to reduce manufacturing costs while preserving — and in some ways improving — the receiver’s core performance characteristics. It is the kind of analysis that requires both engineering literacy and deep familiarity with the hardware, and it adds historical and technical depth to the community’s understanding of why the R-390A exists in the form it does.

The Joy of Repair

Ted’s approach to Collins equipment restoration is perhaps best captured by listeners of his 2022 interview on the QSO Today podcast with Eric Guth, 4Z1UG — Episode 427. The conversation ranged across R-390A restoration philosophy, KWM-2 modifications, aviation, and the deep satisfaction of bringing precision equipment back to its designed performance. The SolderSmoke blog’s review was characteristically enthusiastic, comparing Ted to Richard Feynman for his ability to convey complex technical ideas with infectious clarity and calling it one of the few episodes worth listening to more than once.

Ted’s current station reflects this restoration ethic: a Collins KWM-2 modified for AM operation, a Collins R-390A, and a Collins 30L-1 amplifier — all maintained to a standard that the original Collins service department would recognize. His eBay presence under the callsign k1qar, active since 2004 with a perfect feedback record across more than 750 transactions, serves both as a parts source for the Collins restoration community and as a window into the range of equipment he works with.

High-Power Magnetic Loop Antennas

Ted’s second major contribution to the amateur radio community — and one that intersects directly with R-390A operation — is his two decades of work on high-power magnetic loop antenna design. Where most magnetic loop implementations are limited to QRP power levels, Ted developed techniques for building self-supporting copper tubing loops with bolt-on vacuum variable capacitors that handle substantial power while remaining lightweight and practical for real-world deployment.

His designs incorporate stepper motor tuning control for precise remote adjustment and Russian-style doorknob capacitor matching networks that extend the usable frequency range of each loop. Ted has documented elevated magnetic loop configurations for 160 and 75 meters — bands where the antenna’s inherent noise rejection is particularly valuable, and where conventional full-size antennas require real estate that most operators do not have.

Ted has presented this work at the QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo, at the Waltham Amateur Radio Association, and through his x44.cc website. His magnetic loop expertise is especially relevant to the boatanchor community because the R-390A’s exceptional sensitivity is often wasted on antennas that deliver more noise than signal in urban and suburban environments. A well-designed magnetic loop paired with a properly aligned R-390A represents a combination where both halves of the receiving system are operating at their potential — a pairing that Ted is uniquely qualified to advocate for.

A Life in Radio

Ted was first licensed at age fourteen in 1959 as KN1QAR, upgrading to General class as K1QAR the following year. His early receivers included a Hallicrafters S22R and a National HRO-60 — equipment that established the hands-on relationship with vacuum tube technology that would become a lifelong pursuit. A Yale engineering degree provided the theoretical foundation, but it is the combination of formal training with decades of bench time that gives Ted’s technical work its distinctive authority.

Beyond radio, Ted is a pilot who has flown across America at 14,000 feet in a Beechcraft Bonanza, an offshore sailor who competed in the Bermuda 1-2 singlehanded races in 2003 and 2005 aboard his Hobie 33 “Topaz” — dismasting in the latter event — and a surfer whose coastal Massachusetts location keeps him connected to the ocean. He operates from a hangar at Minuteman Airfield in Stow, Massachusetts, and sails to Block Island, Rhode Island — a life organized around the things that matter to him, with ham radio woven through all of it.

“Art Collins R-390A and KWM-2 designs are capable of performance far beyond their nominal spec when properly overhauled.” — Ted Robinson, K1QAR

That statement, which serves as Ted’s eBay profile tagline, is more than a commercial claim — it is a thesis statement for his entire approach to Collins equipment. The R-390A was designed to meet military specifications that were, by commercial standards, extraordinarily demanding. Ted’s work demonstrates that those specifications represent a floor, not a ceiling, and that the receiver’s true capability reveals itself only when every aspect of the design is performing as Collins’ engineers intended.