[Milsurplus] HRO

Bruce Gentry ka2ivy at verizon.net
Wed May 9 17:26:07 EDT 2018


  I have given this some thought before and have a few theories. HROs 
are good performers, reliable, easy and usually quick to repair, and 
tended to have simple controls and  homely appearance. Military 
intercept operators were frequently women, and their duty was to copy 
signals accurately for the duration of the war. Assigning them receivers 
that were  good performers  for the task but totally practical  would 
not distract them or raise any false hopes for involvment in radio after 
the war. On a far more practical basis, most of the intercept work was 
for CW, in many ways a mature art by that time. Using a minimal but 
excellent, realitively inexpensive, widely available, commmercial 
receiver that could  be used right off the assembly line made a great 
deal of sense. With the dubious "neutrality" of the "Lend Lease" 
program, a simple, innocuous, receiver anyone could buy  frustrated  
objections the Axis powers had to what was really going on.   These 
receivers were used in a generally comfortable temperature and humidity 
environment, not being bounced over roads or on ships, and except for 
having the buildings they were in bombed, did not experience combat.  
The simplicity and servicability of the HRO would also be a plus to the 
social agenda of the time if persons with no prior experience had to be 
trained to maintain them- especially if - gasp, heaven forbid- they were 
women.   Forcing them back to the kitchen after the war would be much 
easier to accomplish if their knowledge was as limited as possible.

       Bruce Gentry, KA2IVY

On 5/9/18 4:08 PM, Hubert Miller wrote:
> This is my opinion, and unsubstantiated, but I think if were to work at it, which I don't want to do, I could go a distance toward
> substantiating it. My opinion is that the HRO was by this time a secondary receiver, one with lower cost than the larger
> competitors, SP series, RBB-RBC, and certainly much easier to repair, and also reliable, but more unwieldy to use than its
> bandswitched contemporaries.

>   My impression was the HRO was shunted off for secondary users. Yes, that
> includes Bletchley Park, where tens of listeners sat with their HROs watching one assigned frequency.
> -Hue
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