Certainly, from various threads over the years on the forum, the AR77 would seem to have been quite a good receiver, certainly for the pre-SSB amateur/keen SWL but I wonder if the availability of the AR88 meant that it was disdained more than it otherwise would have been? You could say that the war produced severe market distortion in that exceptionally large numbers of "governmental" grade AR88 receivers were produced over what would otherwise have been the case. There may have been a feeling that greater skill was required to tune in and stay on faint and ephemeral code signals with lesser receivers and so as many top-notch receivers as possible were necessary, regardless of cost, for vital monitoring work by hastily-trained operators.
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Originally Posted by dave walsh
not only did the Germans have 7 different Code Groups who disagreed [as Dave Moll said] I was amazed to hear that they, literally, fought each other-amazing?
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The Nazi regime was doctrinally Darwinian in approach and those at the top were content to let the most ruthless and unpleasant ("loyal") people work their way to the top in each ministry, inefficient of resources and effort as it may have been. The members of the ruling cabal were often actually rather mediocre in most aspects of their governorship beyond mendacity and it frequently suited them to have underlings distracted by lower-level infighting. Their only aircraft carrier sat awaiting launch throughout the war amidst turf-wars over who was going to procure and run the air wing, how it should be crewed and armed and so on. Fortunately for history, "efficiency" was often more myth than reality.