Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Herbert Hoover Jr and the garage radio designers

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.[1] 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.[2][3] That was quickly countered by saying that HRO stood for "Helluva Rush Order" [4].

These garage radio amateurs caused the great Depression

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