National HRO - History

History

James Millen (amateur radio call sign W1HRX) in Massachusetts was in charge of the mechanical design. According to several accounts, Herbert Hoover, Jr. (amateur radio call sign W6ZH), son of US President Herbert Hoover, and Howard Morgan (of Western Electric) designed the electronics in Hoover's garage in Pasadena, California. Dana Bacon (W1BZR) was also involved and wrote about the receiver as second author with James Millen. Some of National Radio's tool makers marked their overtime slips with HOR for "Hell Of a Rush." Management decided that a version of that abbreviation should be the name of the new receiver, choosing the slight alteration HRO to make it less objectionable. That was quickly countered by saying that HRO stood for "Helluva Rush Order".

The HRO receiver was first announced in QST magazine in October 1934 and shipped in March 1935, incorporating many design features requested by the fledgling airline industry that were also attractive to the amateur radio community. According to the 1935 instruction manual, the HRO price was US$233, the external power supply (to reduce heat in the receiver cabinet and hum) was US$26.50 less tubes, and a 7000 ohm speaker in a rack panel was US$30.00. The HRO found widespread use during World War II as the preferred receiver of various Allied monitoring services, including Y-Service stations associated with the code-breaking group at Bletchley Park (Station X) in England. An estimated 1,000 standard HROs were initially purchased by Great Britain, and approximately 10,000 total saw use by the British in intercept operation, diplomatic communications, aboard ships and at shore stations as well as for clandestine use.