[Milsurplus] New Insight into RAT and RAV

[David Stinson]

I have reported before about the eye-witness accounts of the use 
of radio set RAT in a surveillance capacity.  
In Navy document SHIPS 242A (copies available from Robert Downs)
there is evidence for the use of radio sets
RAT and RAV in a liaison capacity, confirming the speculations
of several of our members.  The two accounts are not 
mutually exclusive, since we have learned that sets were often used
in non-standard applications and the accounts of veterans should
not be discounted. 

Between 1933 and 1940, the major Navy liaison transmitter was the
model GO and subsequent GO-1 to GO-9 models.  The receiver specified 
for use with the GO was the RU.  The maximum operating frequency 
of RU receivers and GO transmitters models GO (1933) to GO-3 (1937)
was 13575 KC.  This was extended in transmitters 
GO-4 (1938), GO-5 (1939) and GO-6 (1939) up to 26500KC.
The RU did not function above 13575 KC, so a new receiver was needed.
The two receivers of an RAT radio set covered 13500 KC to 27000 KC and
was
produced in 1939, so it is near certain they were produced with
this service in mind.

A speculation on the RAV- the operation of the RAT was so 
superior to the RU, I would venture that RAV was ordered as a complete
liaison receiver.  The full set of eight receivers would have been
a "handful" for the radio op, so the RAX became the better choice.  
The RAVs morphed into the command set receiver RBD, soon renamed ARA.

73 Dave Stinson AB5S