[Milsurplus] Good receivers was Why Germany Lost the War

[Ray Fantini]

The RAS and later HRO-M family of receivers are milestones of design. They were pre war design and as such wont hold up to comparison to later design in terms of ergonomics or ease of use, required the operator to change bands by un-mounting and installing coils and required the operator to understand charts and often result in the use of an external frequency reference. But in terms of performance the sensitivity and low noise characteristics exceeded many receiver designs until the advent of double conversion receivers and more modern tubes and solid state. But apart from that the HRO had a feel to it, it comes from a time when some manufactures not just National but RME and other did not bother to use labels or elaborate scales for frequency display with the idea that if you needed to know what that knob was you did not need to be using the radio. I have for years operated a pre war RAS and love the receiver and have to say its something like riding a vintage Harley Davidson, yes Hondas and Kawasaki start first time, run faster, cost less and are more reliable but if you cannot understand why anyone would operate a vintage Harley you probably don't understand why they would operate a HRO when they can be using a Software Defined radio.

 Ray F/KA3EKH


________________________________
From: Milsurplus <milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net> on behalf of Hubert Miller <kargo_cult at msn.com>
Sent: Friday, March 18, 2016 2:42 PM
To: milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] Good receivers was Why Germany Lost the War

I can't think of any post-HRO Nationals except the NC-100 and RAO types, and those don't strike me as particularly
exceptional equipments,  considering their only average frequency indication and the limited selectivity options.
The AR-88 i will never own, due to its weight + bulk, but i'm very curious as to its features, as i don't have the manual.
-Hue


>Yes, if anyone in the WWII era mass produced a better general coverage HF receiver than the RCA AR-88, you have to prove it to me.

Al


Al Klase - N3FRQ

Jersey City, NJ

http://www.skywaves.ar88.net/


On 3/18/2016 10:57 AM, Rob Flory wrote:
Any discussion of the better receivers of WWII would be incomplete without AR-88 family and the many post-HRO Nationals.
RF



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