[Boatanchors] RCA Marine Receivers

[Richard Dillman]

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