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History of the manufacturer  

Hallicrafters, The; Chicago, IL and Arlington/Grand Prairie, TX

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Name: Hallicrafters, The; Chicago, IL and Arlington/Grand Prairie, TX    (USA)  
Abbreviation: hallicraft
Products: Model types Others
Summary:

The Hallicrafters, Inc.
417 North State St., Chicago, Illinois (1932-1935)
2611 Indiana Ave., Chicago, Illinois (1935-1945, production plant of Echophone)

The Hallicrafters Co. 
4401 W. Fifth Ave. / Kostner Ave., Chicago 24, Illinois (1945-1967)
 

The Hallicrafters Co., Subsidiary of Northrop
600 Hicks Road, Rolling Meadows, IL 60008 (1968)

The Hallicrafters Co., division of Breaker Corp.
110 Great Southwest Parkway, Arlington, TX 75011 (1976)
250 Arkansas Lane, Grand Prairie, TX 75051 (1978)

Trade names: Hallicrafters, Echophone

Vertretung in der Schweiz: John Lay, Luzern (later Littau)
Export sales: International Division, Raytheon Mfg. Co., Waltham,Mass.
Canada: Rogers-Majestic, Toronto (1948) / Hallicrafters Ltd., 51 Camden St., Toronto (1953) / Gould Sales Co., Montreal P.Q. (1963)

Founded: 1932
Production: 1933 -
History:

William (Bill) J. Halligan, founder of Hallicrafters, was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1899. He got his first ham license as a teenager. Even at that age he considered himself a radio experimenter and bulit an early spark-gap transmitter. Bill's first job, at age 16, was as a wireless operator on excursion ships between Boston and other coastal cities. When World War I began, he put his skills to use by serving as a wireless radio operator on the battleship Illinois.

After the war was over he attended engineering school at Tufts College and West Point, but left when he married in 1922. He took a job as a newspaper reporter, and then left journalism in 1924 to sell radio parts. In 1928 he decided to start his own company, and moved to Chicago, Illinois. This salesman had ideas for improving the short-wave radios he had been selling. It was a brave venture, with almost no capital, manufacturing license problems and then the depression, but in 1933 Bill founded the Hallicrafters company that made him a legend.

Hallicrafters built handcrafted receivers with state-of-the-art features at an affordable price. By 1938, Hallicrafters was considered one of the "Big Three" manufacturers of amateur receivers (Hallicrafters, National and Hammarlund) and was selling not only in the U.S. but 89 other countries. He had 23 different models of transceivers and was ready to start producing transmitters, beginning with the HT-1.

Instead of putting a lot into expensive cabinets, Halligan believed in providing every nickel's worth into the performance of the chassis and the latest in circuit design. His greatest salesmen were those who used his equipment and praised it to others over the air. From: hug-a-bug.com/hallentr.html. 

In Feb.1956, Hallicrafters was acquired by the Penn-Texas Corp. through an exchange of 332,000 shares of Penn-Texas common stock for all the 825,000 outstanding shares of Hallicrafters stock.The company was operated as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Penn until December 1957, when all common stock was sold back to the Halligan family for $3 million in cash.

Bill Halligan sold Hallicrafters to the Wilcox Electric division of Northrop Corp. in 1966/1967. The deal was approved by shareholders of both companies in mid-December 1966.

Wilcox continued to market Hallicrafters products both semi-military and amateur until the mid 1970s.

In 1975, the brand was sold to the Breaker Corp. of Dallas, TX. Breaker released a few CB and portable radios of Japanese and Taiwanese origin with the Hallicrafters brand until folding in the late 1970s.

 


Some models:
Country Year Name 1st Tube Notes
USA  38/39 Super Skyrider S-17 [Early] 6K7  Coverage: 0.54-62MHz in 6 Bands, Same as S/SX-16 except adds noise limiter and additional... 
USA  38 Sky Challenger II S-18 6K7  The Hallicrafters model S18 covers with the following 5 bands from 0.545 to 38.1 mc: 0.545... 
USA  38–42 Sky Buddy S-19 6K8  Coverage: 0.540-1.8, 1.7-5.75, 5.62-18.4MHz, over 10000 built, recessed Dial, first Receiv... 
USA  38/39 Sky Champion S-20 6K7  Coverage: 0.540-1.8, 1.7-5.75, 5.62-18.4, 17-44MHz, Recessed Dial. Replaced 1939 by S-20R ... 
USA  39–45 Sky Champion S-20R 6SK7  Coverage: 0.540-1.77, 1.72-5.4, 5.3-15.7, 15.2-44MHz, AM/CW, 50 Ohms Antenna Input 
USA  40–43 Sky Traveler S-29 1T4  Coverage 0.54 - 30.5 MHz in four ranges, bandspread in 80/40/20/10m HAM bands; built in te... 
USA  48/49 S-53 6BA6  Coverage: 0.54-1.63, 2.5-6.3, 6.3-16, 14-30, 48-54.5MHz, Reception gap from 1.63-2.5MHz... 
USA  47/48 Skyrider Panoramic SP-44 6SG7  Panoramic Adaptor-Spectrum Display; IF 450–470 kHz; can be used for monitor modulation, di... 
USA  37/38 Super Skyrider SX-16 6K7  Coverage 0.545-1.555/1.545-4.3/4.9-10.2/9.8-20.5/19-36/35-62 MHz, xtal IF-filter. 
USA  40–46 Super Defiant SX-25 6SK7  Coverage: 0.540-1.7, 1.7-5.1, 5.0-15.7, 15.2-42MHz, XTal-IF-Filter , DC Operation also by... 
USA  46–48 SX-42 6AG5  Coverage in MHz: 0.540-1.62 1.62-5, 5-15 15-30 27-55 55-110 X... 
USA  49–55 SX-71 6BA6  Hallicrafters model SX-71 is an AC operated multi-band superheterodyne communication recei... 

[rmxhdet-en]

Further details for this manufacturer by the members (rmfiorg):

tbn_usa_hallicrafters_logo.jpg
Hallicrafters' adtbn_us_halllicrafters_adv.jpg
1949 ad for TV chassis.tbn_hallicrafters.png
tbn_hallicrafters_1945_ad.jpg
tbn_hallicrafters_1961_add.jpg
tbn_usa_halli_ad.jpg
tbn_usa_hallicrafters_ad.jpg
tbn_hallicrafters_1945bannana_net.jpg
tbn_hallicrafters_tv_tuner.jpg
tbn_usa_hallicrafters_1943ad.jpg
tbn_usa_hallicrafters_1944ad.jpg
tbn_usa_hallicrafters_1944_ad.jpg
tbn_usa_hallicrafters_1960ad.jpg
tbn_usa_halli_1944_ad.jpg
tbn_usa_halli_1945_ad.jpg
tbn_usa_halli_1962_ad.jpg
tbn_usa_halli_sx116_ad.jpg
Scanned from the Radio & Television Retailing March 1947 page 74.tbn_rr_mar47_p74.jpg
Scanned from the Radio & Television Retailing September 1947 page 23.tbn_rr_sep47_p23.jpg
Hallicrafters logo from QST August 1974.tbn_hallicrafters_logo_1974.jpg
Hallicrafters logo from 1969tbn_us_hallicrafters_logo_1969.jpg
Hallicrafters company address header from 1969tbn_us_hallicrafters_address_header_1969.jpg

  

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