RCA AR88 Government Service Receiver
  • Power: 105 - 260VAC - 50/60Hz
    • Battery option: 'A' 6v, 'B' 250-300V
  • Wavebands: tuneable from 535KHz to 32MHz across 6 switched bands
    • 0.535 - 1.60MHz
    • 1.57 - 4.55MHz
    • 4.45 - 12.15MHz
    • 11.90 - 16.60MHz
    • 16.1 - 22.7MHz
    • 22.0 - 32.0MHz
  • Valve lineup: 14 total:
    • 6SG7 (x5 - RF & IF amplifiers);
    • 6SA7(converter);
    • 6J5 (x2 oscillator, BFO);
    • 6H6 (x2 - detector/AVC/ANL);
    • 6SJ7 (audio amplifier);
    • 6K6GT (audio output);
    • 5Y3GT (rectifier)
    • VR150 (voltage regulator)
  • Released: c.1942 - 1945
  • Original price: Many thousands of dollars!

Return to The Boatanchor Collection
These hugely heavy and incredibly sensitive sets were, rumour has it, produced for Lend-Lease agreements with England for service in World War II. They are quite common in the UK but scarce in the US. There appear to be two 'flavours' of AR88 - the 'D' version has a frequency coverage as per above whilst the 'LF' version goes down all the way to 75KHz.

What's to be said? They perform excellently; they have silky smooth tuning - all brass gears; they have 2.5W audio output that gives a mellow tone. For a single conversion circuit, no expense has been spared in RF screening and sensitivity.

Too bad my 2 examples are both missing the optional 5mA 'S' meter!

Last updated 10th August 2003