[Premium-Rx] HRO-600

[Peter C. Patton]

At one time I had a complete collection of HROs but being an aerospace 
engineer I eventually had to move yet again and so sold or traded most 
of them. The prize of my collection was an HRO-600 with the tuning knob 
tuner plugin. National was still going then and I traded a spare HRO-500 
from my collection to a National engineer for the decade tuning unit. 
That was a big mistake from a usage point of view but part of the fun of 
collecting HROs is getting all the plug-ins. I never had any trouble 
with the 600 and my signal reports were highly valued by shortwave 
broadcasters because the signal strength meter allowed me to give them 
in microvolts per square meter rather than S units. The Israel shortwave 
service sent me an offical monitor kit and asked for regular reports. I 
bought a Polamar magnetic antenna kit and for a kick decided to QSL the 
whole US BC band in one night. I sent a report to a station in Southwest 
Oklahoma that had a cardioid pattern aimed at New Mexico. Being in 
Southern  Minnesota I was in the null of their pattern; I got a long 
letter from their engineer asking what kind of radio and antenna I had 
to be able to do that.
Sadly I traded the HRO-600 even-up for a new NRD-93 with spare parts kit 
which was  easier to use but not a better radio in my opinion.
I was told by several people close to National at the time of their 
demise that the company was bankrupted by the employees who stole ICs, 
parts, whole radios, and test equipment. I often wondered if the decade 
tuner I traded the HRO-500 for was taken from the stock room. The 
Norwegian Merchant Marine order for the lot of HRO-600s as their Mains 
Rx was National's last order. Reminds me of Indian Motorcycle Company 
who got one last order for 700 bikes from the NYPD in 1953, filled the 
order and went out of business. Still today the 1953 Indian is prized as 
the best bike they built in the 53 year history of the company.
Pete Patton W0EWQ