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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.
The receiver consists of two RF stages, a mixer, local oscillator, three IF stages, a detector, noise limiter, BFO, AF amplifier, output stage and power supply system. The IF amplifiers incorporate variable selectivity and a crystal filter. The sets are normally housed in steel cases but can be rack mounted.
The receivers are designed for coupling to a 200 ohm transmission line, except on low frequency general broadcast bands. For these and general use a single wire 25 to 50 ft. long can be used.
The Reception set AR88D was originally manufactured as the Reception set AR88. It still bears this name on the front panel. The change in designation occurred between the serial numbers 003000 and 010000 and coincides with a change in the design of the output transformer to provide a 600 ohm balanced line output and a 20,000 ohm headphone output. The original AR88 featured a 20 ohm headphone output.
General characteristics
- HAM bands
- 160m 80m 60m 40m 30m (WARC) 20m 17m (WARC) 15m 12m (WARC) 11m (CB) 10m
- Frequency stability
- ?
- Tuning steps
- Continuous
- Memories
- None
Receiver
- RX-range
- 0.535-32 MHz in six bands
- Modulations
- AM CW
- Sensitivity
- For 20dB S/N: 8 µV at 1 MHz, 4.5 µV at 4.3 MHz, 7 µV at 16 MHz, 7 µV at 28 MHz
- Selectivity
- 5 Settings: -3dB bandwidths 15 kHz, 9 kHz, 3.4 kHz, 1.6 kHz, 400 Hz
- Filters
- ?
- Receiver system
- Single conversion, 14 valves
- IF-frequencies
- 455 kHz
- Image rejection
- 120 dB at 1 MHz / 60 dB at 16 MHz / 46 dB at 28 MHz
- Audio output
- 2.5 W (2.5 ohm external speaker or 600 ohm headphone)
Connections
- Antenna
- Clamps / screws
- Impedance
- 200Ω
- Other
- -
Electrical
- Power requirements
- 100-260 V AC mains or 6 V DC vibrator pack
- Current drain RX
- 100 VA
- TX
- -
Physical
- Dimensions (w×h×d)
- 488 × 280 × 488 mm (19.21 × 11.02 × 19.21 in)
- Weight
- 45.00 kg (99.3 lbs)
- Form factor
- Base Station
- Manufactured
- Between 1940 and 1945 in USA
Other features
- Usage
- Amateur / Ham radio operators
- Features + options
- Optional S-meter
- Accessories
- -
- RigReference ID
- 3699
- MPN
- RCA-AR000088D
Manuals, diagrams and brochures
- RCA Ar88 HF Reciever Service Manual PDF - 2.59 MB, submitted by Berend
- Upload relevant documents
New and second-hand prices
Estimating the value of a rig can be challenging. We collect prices paid by real hams over the years to help you estimate the value of a used RCA AR88D. Just bought or sold this model? Let us know what you traded it for and help other ham operators!
Based on historic data, today's second-hand price of the RCA AR88D is around:
- USD 718.00 ~ USD 82.00
- GBP 0.00
These estimates are based on the following prices:
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