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Hallicrafters Co., Chicago IL

The American company Hallicrafters became major manufacturer of world receivers and amateur radio equipment in the thirties and World War II, the company got contracts from the US Army, Many sets from U.S. surplus found new homes in Switzerland after the war.

The price tag of Hallicrafters' equipment used to be in the lower to middle range. The equipment was affordable for many amateurs and the company had an extremely wide model range - technically they fit more in the semiprofessional range and usually cannot compare to professional high end equipment like the ones from Collins, Watkins-Johnson or Rohde & Schwarz.

Company History

In 1933, William Halligan of Boston was able to acquire the Silver-Marshall Inc. Company after their bankruptcy at a low price, they were in possession of a urgently needed production license. In April 1934, the first receiver, the TRF receiver S-1 Skyrider was presented, and the new company got the name Hallicrafters.

Receiver production remained at low numbers until William Halligan teamed up with Arthur Case (Case Electric Co.) and Ray Durst of Echophone Radio Co.; finally they got the much needed RCA licenses to use their patented receiver circuits.

The model range increased dramatically, in addition Skyrider models (which were almost annually re-launched) and the entry-level Sky Buddy, the Super Skyrider superhet receivers were the top of the range sets. The model designations S-xxx stand for the superhets, the models SX-xxx for sets with a quartz filter, to improve the selectivity. A model designation followed by the letter U means that the set is equipped with a universal voltage transformer, so it can not only be operated from 110 V but also from 220 V as found in Europe.

The Hallicrafters receivers were technically always up to date; thanks to the use of standard components from the broadcast industry, they tried to offer „the most radio per dollar“.

With the beginning of the Second World War, Hallicrafters got contracts to supply the U. S. Army; the double conversion receiver SX-28 was produced in around 28'000 units and the shortwave transmitter HT-4, which is the transmitter used in the U.S. high power station SCR-499, which was introduced as SM46 in Switzerland, in around 18'000 units.

In the sixties, the company was sold to the Northrop Corp., the sale figures collapsed shortly after, so the company was resold several times and was closed for good in 1979. William J. Halligan died in July 1992 at the age of 93 years.

en/hallicrafters.txt · Zuletzt geändert: 2019/03/28 20:53 von 127.0.0.1