[Hallicrafters] SX-88

[WA1KBQ at aol.com]

James Millen did a superb job on the mechanical design of the HRO but  
wasn't the electrical engineering by Howard Morgan of Western Electric? I think  
Dana Bacon may have been National's first electrical engineer. I believe he 
 helped on the HRO team but his first home run was the circuit for a new  
moving catacomb receiver (NC-100/ RCD) for the Department of Air  Commerce.
 
James Lamb, technical editor for QST published a couple of  articles in 
1932 which established guidelines for communications receivers  of the next 
several decades: "What's Wrong With Our CW Receivers" and  "Short-Wave receiver 
to Match Present Conditions." By December 1932 an ad  appeared in QST for 
the first commercially produced receiver with a crystal  filter and within a 
year Lamb's recommendations were standard in the better  receivers. The 
first rudimentary communications receiver was the Hammarlund  Comet introduced 
late in 1931 with the more advanced National AGS appearing in  July 1932. But 
these receivers were still fairly crude in that they did not have  direct 
calibration, bandswitching, IF filters nor an S-meter. The first  "complete" 
communications receiver was the RME-9 which was introduced in  December, 
1933. It set the standard for most of the communications receivers  built well 
into the postwar period. The RME-9 had a directly calibrated dial  with 
mechanical bandspread, bandswitching, RF stage, crystal filter, AVC,  S-meter 
and a self-contained power supply. Outside of improved components the  
communications receiver remained essentially unchanged from the RME-9 in 1933  
until after WW2. Everyone made the same receiver dressed a little differently.  
The early to mid thirties receivers would not compare to the post war rigs  
though some (HRO) were certainly much better than the others but what  I am 
saying is RME gets credit for being first to identify and  offer most of the 
desirable features that would soon be adopted by the entire  industry. 
Above includes excerpts from Raymond S Moore's "Communications  Receivers of the 
Vacuum Tube Era."


Regards, Greg

According to Collins there is no 51J and others claim there was  no J1. The 
J2 to J4 were real(-;

The J-1 and J-2 had the first  generation PTO and none of the J series were 
very good general  communications radios. Three models were introduced 
between 1949-51 with the  first two not even lasting a year and with low 
production of 120, 1000, and  1800. Many never left lab enviroments until 
the 
first 1951 R-388 contract  was built and 10,400 left the factory. OTOH the 
51J4 (9000 built) and its  military R-388A (qty unknown) had long 
production 
life.

The RME-9 was  a dog rushed to market with only 50 produced, the remainder 
were converted  to the 9D. Most of the design was already in QST thanks to 
Ross Hull and  others, RME simply packaged it....rather poorly.

Meanwhile James Millen  and crew were already doing design work in 1933 on 
the HRO which didnt get  released to production until March 1935 when 
Millen 
was happy. The rest is  history. National wasnt satisfied with the 
shortcomings of bandswitching  until 1945-46 when the coil turret cost went 
sky high with postwar  inflation. The NC-173 and 183 were the best examples.

Lloyd Hammarlund,  with Oskar watching, was another who took his time until 
his masterpiece was  released in March 1936 and it also started in 1933.

RME continued to  build crap until they finally faded away.

One of my favorite 30's  receivers is the SX-17 which I use often on 80-20M.

Carl
KM1H