[Milsurplus] RAX receivers

[Mike Hanz]

I can't comment on the price, Ray - strange things happen on ebay. :-)   
However, I think the application of these receivers leaned more toward 
surveillance purposes than any other use.  The original RAX 
(http://aafradio.org/flightdeck/RAX.html ) only had a three unit rack, 
which suggests you were supposed to install all three units in an 
aircraft.  They were used primarily in patrol aircraft, which certainly 
had a surveillance mission.  However, after only 75 of these were built, 
they eliminated the single rack and provided separate racks for them, 
suggesting the need for some flexibility in mounting a single or perhaps 
two receivers - possibly in smaller aircraft.  It is a superb liaison 
receiver, and may have filled in for that role between its introduction 
and circa 1942, but the frequency coverage for the entire set is far 
beyond the normal Navy HF range.  In 1942 the Navy finally introduced 
its version of the "official" liaison receiver, the ARB.  Patrol 
aircraft like the PB4Y2 actually carried *both* of them, and that seems 
to reinforce the probable use of the RAX in a signals collection role.

There is quite a bit written about radar signals collection during the 
war, but almost nothing about HF or VHF work.  Probably considered too 
mundane...

73,
Mike

On 10/29/2010 11:22 AM, Ray Fantini wrote:
> Are RAX receivers getting to be that rare? Or am I missing something?
> Ebay item # 150511696060
> Real question, where they intended to be used as a surveillance or counter measure receiver or just as a companion receiver for the liaison transmitter?