10-05-2015, 05:04 PM
They do come up at radio rallies/events etc, not sure though what sought of money they command at the said.
Ebay for sure but unless the seller is reasonably close to your location then travel expense etc has to be taken into consideration.
Most folks that sell an AR88 know what it's value is likely to be, if it's silly money then I wouldn't bother unless it's near mint and that's what you are after.
They are a good performer when fully working and set up correctly, alignment...some say a wobbulator is the only way, I did mine without by using a spot frequency and an output meter plus my ears, most xtal filters in receivers of that era can be done that way, I've done several.
Things to watch out for, amongst others...The tuning knob is a knob twiddlers delight, this often means that the gearbox is badly worn causing backlash within the gearing mechanism that drives the tuning gang, in most cases there's not a lot you can do about it if it's bad except to find a better gearbox, known good gearboxes tend to get snapped up quick, with tuning backlash you will find resolving CW and SSB transmissions a PITA.
The capacitors, the bathtub style capacitors leak in more ways than one...electrical leakage and physical leakage, they can be re stuffed if desired, the large power supply reservoir/filter capacitors can also leak, some say that the types of capacitors as described contain PCB's, I can't say one way or the other for certain.
The sound output transformer in these receivers don't like being stressed, common causes are the grid coupling capacitor to the sound output stage and the capacitor in the tone network, also if I remember correctly there is also a mod to prevent primary winding flashover in the event of a no load situation on the secondary.
Anti belt warning.... when the HT switch is in the "Trans" (transmit) position the voltage across the HT reservoir/filter capacitors can head up to a nasty value, It might be worth while disabling that function, some do some don't.
Many are found minus the screening cans for the tuning gang, not the end of the world.
Some may be fitted with the original type S meter, in general not many are, in the majority of cases another type of S meter has been fitted, actually the S meter response is not that great whether an original or not.
If I remember right the RF gain pot is an oddball value.
If you want backlash free tuning that's a delight to use on a receiver of that era then get yerself an HRO as well (no WW2 collection is complete without one...) most folks on here know they are my favourite receiver from that period.
Good luck.
Lawrence.
Ebay for sure but unless the seller is reasonably close to your location then travel expense etc has to be taken into consideration.
Most folks that sell an AR88 know what it's value is likely to be, if it's silly money then I wouldn't bother unless it's near mint and that's what you are after.
They are a good performer when fully working and set up correctly, alignment...some say a wobbulator is the only way, I did mine without by using a spot frequency and an output meter plus my ears, most xtal filters in receivers of that era can be done that way, I've done several.
Things to watch out for, amongst others...The tuning knob is a knob twiddlers delight, this often means that the gearbox is badly worn causing backlash within the gearing mechanism that drives the tuning gang, in most cases there's not a lot you can do about it if it's bad except to find a better gearbox, known good gearboxes tend to get snapped up quick, with tuning backlash you will find resolving CW and SSB transmissions a PITA.
The capacitors, the bathtub style capacitors leak in more ways than one...electrical leakage and physical leakage, they can be re stuffed if desired, the large power supply reservoir/filter capacitors can also leak, some say that the types of capacitors as described contain PCB's, I can't say one way or the other for certain.
The sound output transformer in these receivers don't like being stressed, common causes are the grid coupling capacitor to the sound output stage and the capacitor in the tone network, also if I remember correctly there is also a mod to prevent primary winding flashover in the event of a no load situation on the secondary.
Anti belt warning.... when the HT switch is in the "Trans" (transmit) position the voltage across the HT reservoir/filter capacitors can head up to a nasty value, It might be worth while disabling that function, some do some don't.
Many are found minus the screening cans for the tuning gang, not the end of the world.
Some may be fitted with the original type S meter, in general not many are, in the majority of cases another type of S meter has been fitted, actually the S meter response is not that great whether an original or not.
If I remember right the RF gain pot is an oddball value.
If you want backlash free tuning that's a delight to use on a receiver of that era then get yerself an HRO as well (no WW2 collection is complete without one...) most folks on here know they are my favourite receiver from that period.
Good luck.
Lawrence.
