Lend-lease saw many of these sets grace our shores and it was often suggested that after WW2 we had used AR88's as hard core when laying runways. Built with good quality components and an excellent performer, it was looked upon as the Rolls-Royce of WW2 receivers. It has a silky smooth tuning action nearly up to the Hammarlund SP600 standards and sports a proper noise limiter, (The noise limiter on the R206 was pair a diodes across the LS output.) With its exceptionally stable oscillator, this is one of the few receivers of this era that is capable of some sort of SSB reception.

Although it is remembered mainly for it's wartime activities, it wasn't originally developed as a military receiver - the AR88 was a commercial receiver and the "AR" actually stood for "Amateur Radio". These receivers were manufactured in America and Canada between 1941 and 1945 and, as most of them were destined for the UK, they are pretty difficult to get hold of in the States.

I purchased a brand new boxed AR88D back in the 70's for £80 but was quite disappointed at first until I found that a link to ground was missing on one of the valve bases. When this was added the set burst into life and proved to be a very nice piece of kit. I kept the receiver balanced on the living room sideboard until one night the cat jumped on it and it went crashing to the floor. This thing must have weighed 100lbs (The receiver not the cat) and I would have loved to see how high it bounced. (The receiver not the cat). The only damage was one broken knob. (The receiver not the cat).

The hostilities version of the Ar88 receiver was rarely fitted with an S'meter but instead had a blanking plate carrying the model number. The receiver pictured here was purchased from a fellow collector a couple of years ago and I've only just got round to replacing all of the bath tub decoupling capacitors. Rather than place the new components on tag strips, I decided to do things properly and mount them inside the old cans. I removed and worked on the caps one at a time to make it easier for me to remember where all the connections were made. I drilled a 1/4" hole in the base of the cap and drained the oil into an old container. I then gradually enlarged the hole by peeling away the thin copper base with a pair of long nosed pliers. Using an old pair of cutters (sic) I found I could tear away the remainder of the base from the body leaving a neat edge. I then removed all of the packing and cut out the old caps leaving as much of the original leads still attached to the terminals. I then pulled on these leads with pliers while heating the mound of solder on the base of the terminals with a large iron. New components were then soldered in place and the bath tubs refitted to the chassis.

Thinking about it, if I had used lots of heat and was able to remove and then refit the bases to the bath tubs, I would be in danger of a future owner thinking the capacitors were still of 1940's vintage and replacing all my handy work with capacitors fitted to tag strips

• Circuit - 14 valve single conversion with 2xRF and 3xIF stages
• Range - 535Kc/s-32Mc/s
• Sensitivity - 8uV for 20db signal to noise ratio
• Weight - 100lbs
• Phones - 200Kohms
• Supply - 100-260Vac @ 100watts, or 6Vdc @ 12amps when using the MI-8319 vibrator PSU
• Dimensions - 19 1/4w x 11"h x 19 1/4"d

This is a extract from an email sent by an elderly friend who has used AR88's in anger.

"...When we were in Siam flying out the POWs, we were using AR88's and our 230 ac came from a pair of "Peggies" (petrol electric generators) made by "Nunn"... consisting of a Ford V8 engine driving an alternator, all enclosed in a metal frame on two skids. The output was controlled by a carbon pile. We used the generators for short 4-6 hour runs as they got quite hot and needed a lot of maintenance. When we got to Siam we hadn't time to erect awnings as we were operating against the clock and ran them outside in the heat of the day. Soon one cp over heated and caused a voltage surge. Our AR88's (all four of them) stopped. The over voltage caused all of the AR88 main HT line decoup condensers, including the anode and 10k(?) screen feed resistors to go u/s, plus mains trans etc and while we had spares, we had only a couple of each item.... and I remember taking .1uf(?)caps from gear we'd salvaged up the jungle from crashed aircraft and working like slaves to get the 88's back in service and our POWs out.

Months later we had about 30 or more AR88's lying around and I dismantled a couple and packed the parts into big fruit tins and resoldered the lids on and sent them home as 'fruit' which we were able to do duty free and enclosed the service manuals and chassis etc cut in a couple of bits ready for rebuilding. When I got demobbed, I need not have bothered for when I got home, AR88's were available ex gov for buttons."

If you can find one, this is the correct 2.5ohm loudspeaker to use with your Ar88 receiver. Be warned though, if you use anything other than 2.5ohms you will probably end up kissing your output transformer goodbye.

It may also be worth mentioning that the PSU smoothing capacitors, if replaced, should be rated at a minimum of 550vDC or they will blow when the receiver is switched to stand-by.