SP-200 Series History

The Hammarlund Series 200 Super-Pro receivers were manufactured from 1939 through 1945, with many thousand delivered to the military during World War II. The three basic models (there were additional variants and modifications) were:

  • SP-210-X or BC-1004-C (0.54 - 20 MHz)

  • SP-210-SX or BC-794-B (1.25 - 40 MHz)

  • SP-210-LX or BC-779-B (0.1-0.4 and 2.5-20 MHz)

Hammarlund Series 200 Pricing

When the receivers were first introduced, they cost about $330 US. Even equipped with Jensen 10" or 12" dynamic speakers and power supplies the price was "only" $465 to $507 -- a pretty penny in its day. In fact, using Westegg.com's Inflation Calculator, the price of this receiver in 1939 would be $8685 to $9469 in 2019 dollars, fully the equivalent of today's top of the line receivers.

It takes a country to make a receiver...

Hammarlund didn't make each and every component of the SP-200's. The twenty six companies that supplied parts for the radio are listed here. There were additional intellectual property rights (patent licenses) from RCA and Hazeltine, shown here on plates affixed to Hammarlund and Howard SuperPro receivers (photos from Dave Hollander and Chuck McGregor, respectively).

And don't forget Australia!

Thanks to David Prince, VK4KDP, we have a photo and schematic of the Eclipse Radio A.M.R. 200 Receiver Unit, U.S. Signal Corps SC-CD-220-43. Photos of this radio, plus other U.S. and British designs that were made in Australia during WWII, can be found on his .

The schematic is also very interesting, showing not only a different tube line up (with glass envelope, vice metal tubes) but a single-ended audio output amplifier 6V6G instead of push-pull 6F6's. Any additional information on this or other internationally produced Super-Pros would be greatly appreciated.