Hammarlund
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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.
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[edit] 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. 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.
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 receiver, which surpassed the Super-Pro in performance, was introduced. 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.
In the late 1950s, Hammarlund was sold to Telechrome, which several years later sold out to Giannini Scientific. During these years the company continued to produce communications equipment for the amateur, commercial, and Citizens Band radio markets. 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 Capacitor 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. [1]
Today, many Hammarlund radios are collected, restored and used by vintage amateur radio enthusiasts.
[edit] Hammarlund legend
There are a number of conflicting stories regarding why amateur radio operators are called hams.[2] 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.[3] In truth, Hammarlund was a minor and barely known company at the time "ham" started to be used.
[edit] Notes
- ^ http://www.hammarlund.info/histpage.html
- ^ http://www.arrl.org/whyham.html
- ^ http://www.retrocom.com/wtcollect/hammarlund.htm
