National HRO 5TA1 Receiver
A classic receiver, first built in the
early 1930's, the HRO was much favored by the military community for its
high sensitivity and high selectivity - the dial giving an effective scale
length of 12 feet. It quickly became a wartime standard and many found their way
into private hands as post-war surplus.
The National HRO series of receivers are like no
other, at least in appearance! Their distinguishing feature is the use of a
removable coil pack for band switching and a large, heavily weighted tuning
drive wheel above that gives 10 full turns of indexing. There is no frequency
readout although the front of each coil pack gives a dial/frequency graph for
that particular band.
The HRO, as designed by James Millen, first
appeared around 1935 and production ended in 1946. The
price of $300 made it a luxury item until its adoption for extensive wartime
use.
This unit, serial L 90, has been wonderfully restored by Ray Bintliff
W1RY and is now owned by W1UJR.
Click on the icon to check out my own recent HRO restoration
.




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