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I'm in shock--pulled a National HRO-60 from a snow-filled dumpster

Doing my morning town dump browsing today. In the scrap dumpster I noticed the corner of a gray equipment cabinet poking out of the snow filling. I risked life and limb to climb in and discovered it was a gigantic radio receiver of some quality. Hefted the monster out and nearly killed myself in the process. As I'm sitting there looking at it, I noticed there were these little matching internal parts scattered all over the dumpster, around the shifting piles of crushed appliances and scrap iron in the ice. So I dove back it and started shoveling. And after all that effort...

I'm now the proud owner of a National HRO-Sixty in excellent physical condition. Also have A,B,C,D,E,F, plus AD and AC tuning coil packs and scales, a Select-O-Ject external tuner, and an external Radio Shack receiver speaker! How's that for a crazy score? Right now I'm thawing everything out and drying the coils out on the furnace.

I'm not very familiar with high-end HAM stuff, but I gather this is quite an impressive machine. The thing that really burns me is that the asshole (if you'll forgive my language) of a former owner threw it 6' down into a scrap dumpster. It's a testament to National's build quality that only the bottom of the case is pushed in, along with a couple of crushed external tuning coils. Given the condition of everything it must have been carefully stored for decades, and the coils probably were kept in their original boxes (which I couldn't find.)

Any good resources online for this sort of thing? I'd like to rehab it and get her running, maybe finally replace my old Army AN/GRR-5 clunker.

Ohhh, whoever the guy was who tossed that thing did you a HUGE favor...HRO-60s are the "last of the line" of the famed HRO series that was started in 1935..Stoopit bestid tossed at least $350-500 worth of radio & coilsets, especially if they work..IIRC, the "60" was made circa 1959-64. You got a FIND, there. Does it have/do they work the 2 broadcast band coilsets ? there is one that goes from like 480-900KC, & the other one goes from like 900-2000KC-but I could be wrong on the exact values. Those are about worth their weight in gold. Also, the coilsets were supposedly "matched" to the radio, so an HRO that has "its" coilsets is really a prize.

I'm not much into radio but had an uncle who was. Out of curiosity I googled the model to see a picture and it is an impressive looking piece of equipment. Can't imagine why anyone who had ever owned the thing could be so callous as to just toss it - maybe it was a PO'd wife/girlfriend. You know how that can happen...

Here is some more info I found:

National Company, Inc. - HRO-60R

Introduced in 1952, the HRO-60 was the last of the evolution of tube-type HRO receivers from National. The power supply is built-in but, to the last, National retained plug-in coil assemblies and the famous micrometer dial (it wouldn't have been an HRO otherwise.) The HRO-60 is double conversion above 7MC, has two RF amplifiers, three IF amplifiers and P/P audio output using 6V6s - 18 tubes in all. The selling price was high at $480 but by production's end, in the early sixties, the price had escalated to nearly $750! Coil assemblies were available for frequency coverage from 50-430KC, 480KC-35MC and 50-54MC. The linear dial uses removable plastic scales that are mounted to a rotatable drum for single band-in-use readout. Two accessory sockets are provided for the optional NBFM adaptor and optional 100KC-1MC Crystal Calibrator. Shown in the photo is the unusual HRO-60R, a rack mount version that included the MRR-2 table rack and the SC-2 speaker panel featuring storage for extra coil assemblies behind the doors. The HRO-60 receivers are sometimes considered inferior in performance to the HRO-50 (single conversion) though this opinion is usually based on the audio response which is more restricted on the HRO-60 due to its increased selectivity. Additionally, the HRO-60's first conversion oscillator can be substantially mis-aligned and the receiver will still seem to function correctly, receiving stronger signals on the higher bands. Additionally, National published two different first conversion oscillator frequencies, 1990KC and 2010KC, making alignment errors common. When properly aligned, the HRO-60 has tremendous sensitivity with low noise, impressive selectivity and respectable audio from the P/P 6V6s.

Sounds like a very valuable piece of equipment worth fixing!

:music:

The E and F coil packs cover general broadcast, and I have both of them in good shape. A couple of the other ones are dinged up a little. Pack B is the only real casualty--one of the cans is crushed. I'm not sure how badly the actual coil is messed up.

I'm not positive, but I think another advantage to getting a radio with all its coil packs is that the tuning scales are installed. From what I've read the radio would come with scales for the basic coils and additional ones could be added later.

I doubt it was anything as current as a PO'd girlfriend. Most of this stuff is found in basements by some dead guy's kids. The people around here don't appreciate this sort of thing so it gets tossed. Half my audio equipment and shop tools came the same way. I bet this National was probably in a fully-equipped DX room in a house somewhere.

The next one, the HRO 500, came out in '65. It was totally solid state design, & was pretty "cutting edge" for its day. HROs were always expensive sets, & it wasn't until the HRO-50 that came out in like 1948 or so, did they have integral power supplies, or "direct reading" dials.

Could be an old employee's stuff that got tossed when he died-how far are you from Malden, Mass. ? That's where they were made.

Nice goin' John!
No treasures at our dump today, but the thrill is in the chase...

Unbelievable what some people will throw out. Glad you happened along for the rescue!

NOW THAT IS A FANTASTIC SAVE!!!!!!!! And to get the complete unit with the coils. You're starting at the top.

What an amazing find! And I think that can might be salvageable.

So...did you dig any further or check the dumpster next to it? I'm thinkin' Collins S-Line here. You lucky dog you.

Wow!!!! I'm so happy your came along to save it! Congratulations and also thanks.

Steve

I dug pretty hard in the dumpster. Might have missed a coil pack or two, but when you get to a certain degree of climbing under ice-covered piles of cut sheetmetal there's a tilt point. I'm surprised I was able to find eight as it was. One of them was buried under some steel chairs.

Finally got all the ice and water out of it. Everything looks pretty good. A few dents, one of the control shafts is bent but otherwise OK. If not for the drop damage it would be in quite stunning condition.

Anyone know if there are owner's or service manuals online for these things? I found one for an earlier HRO, but that doesn't help a lot.

yes.. you can get the manual here for free.

http://bama.edebris.com/manuals/national/hro60/