The Espey R-366/TRR-5 is a general purpose receiving set designed for use as an entertainment unit or auxiliary communications receiver. The receiver is a manually tuned, 16 tube superheterodyne. It has a tuning range of 540 to 30,000 kc in five tuning bands and receives either CW or voice signals.
It is similar to the Scott receiver AN/SRR-3 of the same period and produced under Contract NObsr-43229 dated 15 March 1949.
A user manual is available here : ANTRR5_INSTRUCTION_BOOK
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| The front panel as it originally looked. |
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| The front panel once it had been cleaned. |
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| First page in NAVSHIPS describing AN/TRR-5 and performance specifications. |
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| Detailed shipping information for AN/TRR-5 receiver. |
From the Antique Radio Forums :
Most of them were purged via DRMO in 1968-1973 and I only saw small numbers of them trickling through the system so I am guessing they were made in only a small quantity. None of the ones I have run across have had cabinets and all were in pretty atrocious condition. I vaguely recall the processing papers showing the equipment had come back from Vietnam, Guam, S. Korea and Japan.
Geoff Fors - WB6NVH
If you have any information regarding these receivers please leave a comment. If you have a R-366 of your own please let me know the serial number in the comments!
R-366/TRR-5 serial number registry:
- #623 : KF5CZO - Owen Morgan
- #050 : AE5VB - Hugh Coleman
- #132 : W5AMI - Brian Sherrod
- #591 : KC9KUH - Brian Love : (Compliance plate missing)
- #290 : KC5IIE - Chris Krug (Update 01/11/2012 : Sold to W5XTL - Jeramy Ross)
- #653 (Sold on Ebay, spotted by Brian KC9KUH)
- #251 (Sold on Ebay, spotted by Brian KC9KUH)
- #340 (Sold on Ebay, spotted by Brian KC9KUH)
- #468 Jeff Wewers
- #140 Gilbert Mendez
- #097 James Starling
Using the formula N=m(1 + k − 1) − 1 from the
german tank problem where
m is the largest serial number observed and
k is the count of serial numbers we see that the current estimated number of R-366/TRR-5 receivers produced is N=653(1+11
− 1) − 1 or approximately 711.
After bringing this receiver up on a variac to reform the filter capacitors I monitored the power usage and found it to be in line with the users manual @ approx 125W.
Audio is great due to the push-pull output stage and either a 6 ohm or a 600 ohm speaker can be used, both impedances are available on the rear connectors.
Readout seems accurate and the VFO is stable after just a few minutes warmup. Tuning the HAM bands is fairly touchy but this is really an AM rig by design.
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| Serial number 623 of how many? This seems to be a rare radio but I have heard of at least 4 other people with the R-366. |
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| The bandchange is accomplished by rotating the circular turret. Each of the five bands has a complete set of discrete components in its sector of the drums. |
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| Military amphenol right angled connectors. The three pin connector is 110V power in and the four pin is the 6/600 ohm speaker connector. |
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| I was fortunate enough to be given period style military connectors for these sockets. Both neutral and active lines are fused on the power input circuit however I made sure to wire the active line to the power switch side for safety. |
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| The receiver chassis slides out on roller slides for servicing and inspection. The full circuit diagram is also on the band change turret cover ... a thoughtful addition! |
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The only modification I can find is the antenna connector. Its been replaced with a SO-239 bulkhead connector for convenience. Personally not something I would have done myself but it makes life easier so I'm not complaining.
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| An unmodified antenna connection from another Espey R-366 |
