[Hallicrafters] Try again with right Subject - sorry - Instruction Manuals

[Peter Markavage]

As a dabbler in manuals, I guess I should ask. When you speak of "green
manuals" are you referring to the Hallicrafters manuals whose front cover
was green with black printing or are you referring to manuals which you
may have procured or seen that have a green stock for a front cover?
Original Hallicrafters manuals most, mostly in the 50's, had a front
cover (facing you) in green; the back side of this front cover was white
with black printing. A green front stock obviously would be green on both
sides. Hallicrafters never did manuals with green cover stock. A
Hallicrafters "green" front cover page I believe, was done using a "color
bleed" process (or something like that; maybe we have some professional
printer people that can explain the real process). Conventional ink jet
and, even consumer laser color printers, can't easily provide the uniform
dark green color over the entire page (i.e. it looks grainy, shades vary
over the page, smears easy, uses lots of ink or toner, etc.).

Most of Hallicrafters manuals from the 40's were of a brown or beige type
color. Sometime in the 50's, the green front cover (green facing you)
started to be used. Sometime in the late 50's and early 60's, the
transition to the white or off-white covers was made. I'm willing to bet
it was probably due to the cost of putting that green color over the
entire front page on one side. There were a number of manuals that
started their life with a green cover and when the stock went to zero,
were then printed with the white cover. I have a number of models that
were printed with both cover stock colors. The white manual covers had
several design changes as Hallicrafters then migrated into a subsidiary
of Northrop Corporation. Also under Northrop, several of the 40's manuals
like the S-36, S-40, and probably others, were reissued in the 60's now
using white covers.

Also, be aware, that stringent design control probably was not high on
the list with many of these manufacturers at that time. Having talked
with many people of that era in the past who were involved in the
manufacturer of these electronic products, impulsive design change (i.e.
I woke up this morning and had a bright idea on improving the AGC
characteristics of model XXX) was done on a frequent basis with sometimes
little to no documentation to support the change. Sometimes a service
bulletin was sent to the dealers, or an errata sheet might have been
tossed into the box before the unit was shipped, but many times "the
documented change" never left the assembly room floor.

Pete, wa2cwa

On Sat, 25 Mar 2006 16:32:43 -0600 "Gerry Steffens" <gsteffens at pitel.net>
writes:
> Gurus:
> 
> I am a Hallicrafters collector, or hoarder if you will, with several 
> decades
> at it and over 50 units.
> 
> I also collect and restore the Instruction Manual & Technical 
> Information.
> 
> Are the green manuals later reprints from Hallicrafters?
> 
> For later equipment, I have a number of original white manuals with 
> various
> other items on the cover from the red Halli h emblem to blue banner 
> type
> printings.  I have been trying to acquire as many different versions 
> of the
> schematics as possible since there were many that changed along the 
> way.  I
> also have some green manuals that are marked exactly the same but 
> are not
> the same inside, like not having the same schematic and in the case 
> of the
> SX-62 not even the same tube configuration.  This is for the same 
> manual
> designation not various Mark designations or SX-62A or B.
> 
> Some of the earliest green manuals I have are for the S-53 and S-72, 
> but I
> find both types for the SX-110 and many others.
> 
> What is the story on the green manuals?
> 
> Cheers from Minnesota,
> 
> Gerry
> 
> Collecting & Restoring E.H. Scott,
> McMurdo Silver, Hallicraafters, Zenith 
> Transoceanic and any other interesting 
> radios since the 60s
> Gerald Steffens P.E.
> Oronoco, MN