[Boatanchors] RCA Marine Receivers

[Richard Knoppow]

    Thank you very much. I wonder if the designer left any notes 
behind, they would certainly be of historical interest.
    I wonder about the dates of manufacture, perhaps KPH chose 
the AR-8516 because it was available first. one difference is the 
AR-8516 has an LC filter to provide the narrow bandwidth for CW. 
The R6A has a mechanical filter for that and is simpler because 
it does not need a 45Khz IF.
    Do you know if the operators at KPH had any preferences for 
receivers? From the photos you show they had many different ones.
     I listen to KPH every Saturday its on. Brings back memories.

On 5/31/2022 8:31 PM, Richard Dillman wrote:
> 
> I'm unable to comment on the image rejection of the CRM-R6A and 
> the AR-8516 but we do have two of each receiver in our collection 
> at the KPH receive site.
> 
> It's quite correct, as has been stated, that the AR-8516 was 
> designed so it could be used on DC is ship installations.  But 
> oddly, it was the AR-8516 that was in service at KPH.  By the 
> time we began our restoration project in 1999 this receiver was 
> long gone.  In cases like this we try to obtain the same model 
> receiver to stand in for the original unit.  At the time I was 
> able to find only a CRM-R6A which I purchased (at a steep price!) 
> for the collection.
> 
> Several years later we were approached by the family of the 
> engineer who designed both receivers with an offer to donate a 
> CRM-R6A and a AR-8516.  Having provenance like that is 
> tremendously valuable in a project of historic preservation such 
> as ours so naturally we accepted.
> 
> The CRM-R6A was an easy restoration.  Turning to the AR-8516 we 
> found that it contained the experimental and test circuits of the 
> designer.  So of course we left those in place.
> 
> Some time later we were invited to acquire items from an estate.  
> Among them was an AR-8516, which we restored.
> 
> So now we are able to display a working AR-8516 like the one in 
> the historic KPH photo along with two CRM-R6As.  I suspect that 
> our "Treasure Room", as we call it, must have one of the larger 
> collections of receivers of this type.
> 
> VY 73,
> 
> RD
> 
> 
> Richard Dillman
> Maritime Radio Historical Society
> https://www.radiomarine.org <https://www.radiomarine.org>
> 

-- 
Richard Knoppow
1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com
WB6KBL