Hammarlund

The Hammarlund Manufacturing Company, founded by Oscar Hammarlund in New York City, New York, USA in 1910, initially designed and produced short wave radio equipment.

History

The first Hammarlund plant was a loft operation engaged in radio component manufacturing on Fulton Street in lower Manhattan, New York City. Their variable capacitor designs quickly became industry standards, and the component's schematic symbol was adopted as the company's logo. In the mid-1920s, Hammarlund formed a partnership called Hammarlund-Roberts Co. specifically to offer kits for AM Broadcast radios using Hammarlund parts.

Comet pro receiver

When Hammarlund-Roberts went out of business in 1931, Hammarlund Mfg. Co., Inc. entered into the shortwave receiver market with the introduction of the "Comet Pro", the first commercial short wave superheterodyne receiver. Within five years, thousands of these receivers were in use at commercial radiotelegraph and radiotelephone stations, aboard ships and at broadcasting stations as well as by amateur radio operators the world over. Professional listening post installations made great use of the Comet Pro, and it was used also on many major exploration expeditions. [http://www.oldradios.co.nz/my/receivers/hammarlund/about.htm Oldradios.co.nz, "Hammarlund"]

uper pro receivers

Following introduction of the Comet-Pro came an improved receiver, called the Super-Pro (the SP-200 series). The latter was put in production in 1936. Hammarlund expanded when World War II broke out. More than 2000 people were employed a 14 different Hammarlund plants. It has been estimated that almost 90% of American wartime military electronic equipment employed Hammarlund capacitors. In addition to Super-Pro receivers (Signal Corps model BC-779) and capacitors, Hammarlund produced radar and electronic counter-measures equipment for the armed forces. At the end of World War II, the market was flooded with surplus Super-Pro receivers at bargain prices, which may be a reason many working examples of this model are still found today.

In 1947 the SP-600 Super-Pro receiver, which surpassed the SP-200 in performance, was introduced, covering the frequency range of 540 kHz to 54 mHz with a 0-100 calibrated mechanical band spread. The receiver had provisions for optional crystal control of six selected frequencies. Several variants were produced including a VLF version, which tuned from 10 kHz to 540 kHz. Others had various tuning ranges which eliminated the broadcast band and the top end of the range was 29.7 mHz. The SP-600 series were widely used through out the world for military, laboratory and commercial application. [http://www.hammarlund.info/histpage.html "The Hammarlund Historian"]

Communications gear

When two-way mobile radio was being introduced to taxicabs, railroads, power companies, pipe lines and industry in 1948, Hammarlund became the first to bring out selective calling equipment. While Hammarlund was most famous for its amateur/short-wave receiver lines such as the Super Pro series and the HQ series (which includes the HQ-100, 110, 120, 129, 145, 170 and 180) a number of transmitters were also produced. These saw only limited use until Hammarlund entered the market with single-sideband equipment. In 1960 the HX-500 was introduced; this was a table-top, 100 watt output, single-sideband transmitter which also had FM and FSK transmission capability, along with the later HX-50. In 1964 the company produced a table-top linear amplifier, the HXL-1. [http://www.hammarlund.info/histpage.html "The Hammarlund Historian"]

Hammarlund also built a substantial quantity of the VHF FM “Village Radios” for the U. S. Agency for International Development (AID) for use in Vietnam, as well as a number of land-mobile radios and transceivers for the Citizens band radio market. [http://www.hammarlund.info/histpage.html "The Hammarlund Historian"]

Final decades

Even as the company continued to produce communications equipment for the amateur, commercial, and Citizens Band radio markets, it underwent frequent changes of ownership. The first was in the late 1950s when Hammarlund was sold to Telechrome. Several years later Telechrome sold out to Giannini Scientific. In the late 60’s the company was once again sold to the Electronic Assistance Corporation (EAC). But, this sale was final. The product line was sold off in parts or phased out. The Cardwell Condenser Corporation purchased all remaining stocks, and in the early 1970s the Hammarlund factory closed. At the time of its dissolution, Hammarlund was among the USA's very oldest producers of radio equipment. [http://www.hammarlund.info/histpage.html "The Hammarlund Historian"]

Today, many Hammarlund radios are collected, restored and used by vintage amateur radio enthusiasts.

Hammarlund legend

There are a number of false etymologies regarding why amateur radio operators are called hams. [http://www.arrl.org/whyham.html ARRL, "Why Do They Call It Ham Radio?"] Likely an example of corporate wishful thinking, one such tale is that Hammarlund products were supposedly so pre-eminent in the pioneering era of radio that they became a part of the language of radio. As the story goes, early radio enthusiasts affectionately referred to Hammarlund products as "Ham" products, and called themselves "Ham" operators. [http://www.retrocom.com/wtcollect/hammarlund.htm Retrocom, "Hammarlund"] In truth, Hammarlund was a minor and barely known company at the time "ham" started to be used.

References

ee also

* Collins radio
* E.F. Johnson
* Hallicrafters
*Hammarlund super pro
* National radio
* Vintage amateur radio

External links

* [http://www.cardwellcondenser.com/ Cardwell Condenser Corporation] (Current holder of Hammarlund Parts Stocks)