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The boom years for Hallicrafters were from 1945 to 1963, during which the company produced equipment considered by many to be superbly designed, including the famous S-38 receiver, which received a cosmetic "makeover" by industrial designer Raymond Loewy.
Almost immediately, Hallicrafters became known for their high quality receivers and amateur transmitters. The company first gained attention with their `Skyrider' and `Super Skyrider' models, moderately priced receivers that were well-designed and solid performers.
- The Artifact
- A History of Hallicrafters, Part I: The Boston Ham
- II. Crafting A Brand
- III. Bombproof
- IV. New Adventures in Hi-Fi
- V. Video Skilled, The Radio Star
- VI. End Transmission
“Now Hallicrafters, unchallenged leader in the field of advanced short wave for foreign reception, brings you a remarkable instrument—the Hallicrafters 5R30A. Here is more than simply a radio—here is the key to the airwaves of the world, for with this set, small though it is, you get world-wide reception. Naturally, you get the finest in regular ra...
“Until Bill Halligan came along and designed a radio set for ham radio operators, the hobbyists built their own receiver and transmitter. These consisted of a ton or more of equipment piled tier-on-tier in a jungle of wiring, usually in an attic or basement. Most of them looked like Goldberg nightmares.” —Sales Management, 1947 William Halligan was...
In 1928, with radio sales exploding, Halligan decided to strike out on his own. He also made the astute decision to move his family to Chicago, which he’d visited several times as a salesman and had deemed the rising epicenter of his industry. This is the part of the story, of course, where the stock market eventually crashes and all youthful optim...
“Hallicrafters sets were developed in the great testing grounds of amateur radio. They have served an ‘attic apprenticeship’ and have come out of the attic to go around the world with victorious Allied armies.” —Hallicrafters advertisement, 1944 In the summer of 1941 (according to company lore), one of Bill Halligan’s tidy new 450-watt transmitters...
In the introduction to his 1945 African safari memoir South of the Sahara, explorer Attilio Gatti wrote in glowing terms about Hallicrafters, which had also (coincidentally) sponsored his expedition. The Italian-born adventurer noted the “admiration and gratitude I owe to the Hallicrafters organization, their imaginative leadership, their precise t...
“When you turn on this beautiful console, you’ll thrill to television’s clearest picture . . . a spectacular performance! Hallicrafters sensational DYNAMIC TUNER with the ‘Precision Printed Circuit’ is the answer.” —Hallicrafters Television ad, 1950 America’s transition from radio to television wasn’t as gradual as one might presume. Since much of ...
Despite fizzling out of the TV market, Hallicrafters’ final decade as a family business, from 1956 to 1966, still saw record sales figures—mostly through military contracts (including the new fields of space communications and missile defense systems), but also through steady success in the shortwave radio market, as the company’s ham kits continue...
With the outbreak of World War II, the company prepared for wartime production, and was responsible for new designs and innovations for use by the U.S. troops; probably the best-known were the HT-4/BC-610 and related equipment used in the military SCR-299 communications package.
Hallicrafters & World War II. The onslaught of World War II took the U.S. by surprise. There was a shortage of military radio equipment and tremendous government demand for Electronic equipment of all types. Many of the existing Hallicrafters products and designs were pressed into military service.
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.
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The First Hallicrafters Skyrider. A report by the Technical Editor of Radio News, August 1934. Bill (William J.) Halligan began building receivers for the ham trade in late 1932. He called his receivers "Hallicrafters"-a combination of his name and craftsmanship."
