This listing is for a vintage Hammarlund SP-600-JX-26 / U.S. Army Signal Corps R-274C/FRR General Purpose Communications Receiver (serial no. 11532). Based on our research, it was made in February of 1953. It was last tested in 2011 and may or may not work properly. The receiver has wear from use and comes with a copy of the instruction manual, background information, and schematics. It does not include a rack cabinet. Please see the photos below to see everything that is included, and contact us with any questions before bidding. We have a low opening bid and no reserve price so don't miss your chance to win!
From The Hammarlund Historian website:
"Std. frequency range, 54Okhz-54mhz Signal Corps. R274C/FRR, order no. 3376-Phila-52. Effective upon Signal Corps. approval of TAR#10 dated 2-12-53. Replaces JX-14."
From the Western Historic Radio Museum:
"Hammarlund released an advertisement in 1948 that introduced their newest receiver, the SPC-600X. The receiver was to sell for $395 but, as Hammarlund had done before, this advertisement was really just to let hams and interested commercial users know what was going to be available in the future. No SPC-600X receivers were ever created other than maybe a prototype or two. It was over a year later, in 1950, that Hammarlund introduced the SP-600 Series and the selling price had dramatically risen to nearly $1000. This new SP-600 was primarily intended for the military and commercial user market. It was a very popular receiver and many thousands were built, especially for military applications. It's likely that much of the SP-600 design criteria actually came from the U.S. Army Signal Corps, especially the JX crystal oscillator concept. The use of the selectable crystal oscillator is seen on some "customized" SP-200 WWII Super Pro receivers and was even designated as an "Improvement Kit" with the part number MC-531 from the Signal Corps. Sometimes these receivers were "custom" rebuilds done by various engineering companies for the Signal Corps. These "custom" SP-200 Super Pro receivers usually date from 1947 up into the 1950s. It's likely that the turret band changing was also a specification from the Signal Corps and this is shown by the Hallicrafters' R-274 receiver, built for the Signal Corps and sharing many similarities to the SP-600, including the turret band switching concept. So, although Hammarlund advertising appears to ignore the Signal Corps input, there is just too much evidence available that shows much of Hammarlund's design concepts for the SP-600 actually came from the Signal Corps. The first contract issued was in 1950 for the R-483/FRR for the Signal Corps and was actually a SP-600 JX-5 and was not actually built until November 1951. The first built SP-600s were R-274A/FRR receivers (SP-600 JX-1) built on a 1951 contract in September 1951."