[Hammarlund] Hammarlund radios

[Richard Knoppow]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <djed1 at aol.com>
To: <kk7iz at cox.net>; <hammarlund at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, December 13, 2011 3:41 PM
Subject: Re: [Hammarlund] Hammarlund radios


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> SP-400X Was told the fancy knobs were special order. ????
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> I think you got kidded. I spent a year searching for the 
> original tuning knobs.  But it's interesting that the 
> SP-400 has holes for a dust cover- most I've seen were in 
> a cabinet and had no dust cover holes (as the regular 
> SP-200s have). I've got two BC-779s, an A and a B; and a 
> nearly perfect SP-400.  I don't have any room for more.
> Ed  W2EMN
>
     The SP-400 knobs are similar to those used on the 
HQ-129-X. They are not quite like standard "chicken head" 
knobs. I suspect these and the tuning and bandwitch knobs 
may have been custom made for Hammarlund. The earlier 
version of the receiver used a bandswitch with a skirt that 
had the bands marked on it. The SP-400 has a long chicken 
head pointer knob with the bands marked on the panel. I 
never particularly liked this style of knob and always 
associated them with cheap equipment (although that's really 
not fair). The only reason I can think of for this change 
was lowering cost. Hammarlund must have known that the 
SP-400 was a transitional model. The earliest ad for the 
SP-600 I've seen appears in the 1948 edition of the _ARRL 
Radio Amateur's Handbook_. Its a drawing, not a photo. While 
its recognizable its evident from the description that a lot 
of re-design was done before the production receivers were 
released. However, it does have the big knobs. This same ad 
shows the HQ-129-X, appearantly the only receiver being 
offered at the time. The SP-400 is not shown and I suspect 
it was thought the SP-600 would supplant it sooner than 
happened. It would be interesting to know the inside story 
but a lot of companies had problems around this time from 
reconversion and severe post-war inflation.
    Hammarlund seems to have figured out that people like 
big knobs and introduced them on later models like the 
SP-600 and HQ-140. These were definitely custom made for 
Hammarlund.


--
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles
WB6KBL
dickburk at ix.netcom.com