A bit of HRO history

A couple of people have asked me why I find the HRO receiver interesting enough for me to have two in my collection.

 

I'm interested in World War Two history, and in particular the code breaking activities of Bletchley Park. The HRO played a very significant role in this work as it was the standard receiver used for intercepting the encrypted German radio traffic.

The HRO has its origins in the mid 1930's. The National Radio Company of Malden, Massachusets had previously produced a receiver for the aviation industry, known as the AGS. The successor to the AGS was intended to meet the needs not only of airlines and commercial users, but also Amateur (Ham) Radio Operators who wanted a very high performance shortwave receiver.

The HRO was brought to the market very quickly, and it's name may reflect this. It is said that staff who worked on the project  wrote 'HOR' on their timesheets, meaning 'Hell Of a Rush'. Apparently National thought HOR was inappropriate, and rearranged it as HRO (subsequently said to mean 'Helluva Rush Order'). It went on sale in 1935 at a cost of around $200, which must have been a lot of money at the time!


Very early in WW2, the War Office decided that the receivers in use by British armed forces might not be good enough for the anticipated needs of the war, and a search for a better and commercially available receiver was undertaken.  A number of types were evaluated but the National HRO was considered to be most suitable. At first the British Government was not able to buy HROs in quantity (I assume this was when the USA was neutral), so British officers traveled to the USA to buy sets and import them personally. Many thousands of HROs were subsequently sent to Britain under the Lease-Lend arrangement, and there were probably more than 10,000 in use by the end of the war.

HROs were used as a general purpose HF receiver by all British Forces. The 'Y' stations (I believe the name came from Wireless Intercept, or WI) operated by the Army, Royal Navy, RAF and the Radio Security Service all used HROs. They were also issued to civilian Volunteer Interceptors, who used them at home under control of the RSS.

RSS intercept station at St Erth, Cornwall.

The HRO was very advanced for its time. There were several versions produced over the years but due to its superb performance and ease of operation, even the early ones remained in use by both commercial and military users into the late 1950s, and possibly later. After the war many came onto the surplus market and were eagerly bought by Amateur Radio Operators, and HROs were prized posessions in many radio shacks for several decades. In fact, the first one I ever saw was in the shack of a local Ham who introduced me to the hobby around 1975.

There are a number of good websites where information on HRO receivers can be found. One of the best in my opinion ( I have no connection with it) can be found here

Keep listening!