[NJARC] AR-88/89 inquiry

[Alex Magoun]

Hi all,

Here's an inquiry about some WWII-era RCA equipment that someone else is undoubtedly more familiar with.  Can you offer some insight?

I am editing a 1945 report by British codebreakers about their efforts against German enciphered HF radio teleprinter messages. . . . It turns out that the main radioteletype interception sites were a popular place for American liaison officers to visit in 1944-45, and their reports home to Washington are full of detail not in the British report I'm editing.  Two such American reports (both by Navy officers) say, for instance, that the British first used "HRO receivers" but switched over to "RCA AR89".  A third report (by a civilian employee of the Army) said they used "RCA AR88's".  All three agree that diversity receiving was used, with 2 or 3 receivers per signal.

So, the question is, what is an RCA AR 89 ?  There are numerous ham radio web page references to the AR 88, and none to an AR 89.

The AR 88, by itself, is not a diversity receiver.  I have seen references to an RCA DR 89, which is a diversity receiver consisting of what seems to me to be 3 AR 88's plus extra stuff needed to do diversity reception.  So the specific questions are:  was there RCA equipment designated AR 89?  And if so, what relationship does it have to DR 89?
Was it a predecessor of the DR 89?  Or a misnomer for the DR 89?  And so on.

Thanks,

Alex

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