27-03-2011, 01:24 AM
Thank you Alan: that is exactly the full story that I was referring to in my Opening Post. And I repeat what I said there: I find it very difficult to believe. Call me an old-fashioned sceptic if you will, but for a nascent company who had developed a receiver on which their future depended, and had spent an enormous amount of time and money to get it to the 'finished product' stage, to me, it seems utterly incredulous that that was the real reason for the choice of name. A name, that when the buyer asked my very same question of the manufacturer - which was an almost guaranteed question to ask - would the buyer (customer) have been told that's what the letters really stood for? Seems to me to be very unlikely, considering the almost guaranteed 'negative impact' that such a response would have had on the nascent company's future trading prospects.
Moreover, "Hell Of A Rush", when abbreviated, would have become "HOAR". If it was chosen to omit the "A" and then re-arrange the remaining letters to make "HRO", why not omit the "O" and re-arrange the remaining letters to make "HRA" - or some other strange 3-letter sequence?
As I stated, I have heard & read the story as you reported it - for which thank you. Until I read that story myself (which was a long time ago), and although I thus knew of the 'aviation connection', I always suspected that the prototype design was originally aimed at the Amateur Radio market (note: AmRad bandspread coils, yes?) - and "HRO" simply stood for Ham Radio Operator. Then along comes the urgent - and much more profitable - 'aviation requirement', and it's "Oh dear! What do we have on the drawing board or in development we can re-work for this urgent job? Ah-Ha! I know . . . " etc.
Anyway, all of that is simply my 'take' on the subject; and yes, I may be totally proven wrong one day - but I'll always find that apocryphal tale that you related a very difficult one to swallow!
Al. / Skywave.
Moreover, "Hell Of A Rush", when abbreviated, would have become "HOAR". If it was chosen to omit the "A" and then re-arrange the remaining letters to make "HRO", why not omit the "O" and re-arrange the remaining letters to make "HRA" - or some other strange 3-letter sequence?
As I stated, I have heard & read the story as you reported it - for which thank you. Until I read that story myself (which was a long time ago), and although I thus knew of the 'aviation connection', I always suspected that the prototype design was originally aimed at the Amateur Radio market (note: AmRad bandspread coils, yes?) - and "HRO" simply stood for Ham Radio Operator. Then along comes the urgent - and much more profitable - 'aviation requirement', and it's "Oh dear! What do we have on the drawing board or in development we can re-work for this urgent job? Ah-Ha! I know . . . " etc.
Anyway, all of that is simply my 'take' on the subject; and yes, I may be totally proven wrong one day - but I'll always find that apocryphal tale that you related a very difficult one to swallow!
Al. / Skywave.
