Howard
Radio Company - Chicago, Illinois
Howard was a major player in both
broadcast receivers and communications receivers prior to
W.W.II. The Howard Radio Company was located at 1731-35
Belmont Avenue in Chicago. They also built communications
receivers for Sears under the Silvertone name. The
Silvertone Precision which is very rare is a Howard in a
different case. Howard also built receivers for
Hallicrafters for a time in the early 1930's. I believe they
made their last broadcast receivers around 1948 and were out
of business by 1949. This page deals with Howard
communications receivers which were sold for use by radio
amateurs, short wave listeners and the military. It does not
cover broadcast radios which was their primary
market. Despite the copper chassis and really
neat art deco styling, these are really awful receivers in
my opinion. I own a Howard 430, 436, 438 and a 440. I went
through the 440 and it's performance is pretty disappointing
despite being a 12 tube receiver. They are really neat to
look at however. Other problems are chassis corrosion and
corrosion of the slide rule dial on most of the 430 through
438 series of receivers. It is rare to find one of these
with a really clean dial. If you have
ever worked on the 430-438 series, they are quite difficult
to remove from the cabinet and just as difficult to
reassemble. During a W.W.II under a 1942 military
contract, Howard manufactured the BC-779 version of the
Super Pro SP-200 series for Hammarlund. The "made for
Hammarlund by Howard" wording suggests that Hammarlund
subcontracted manufacturing to keep up with the high wartime
demand. From photos, it appears that the Howard built Super
Pro's are all in military gray, while some Hammarlund-built
models were in the civilian black crackle finish, with a
military name tag added. If you have any additions, corrections
or photos on Howard receivers would be appreciated. Please
e-mail to: n7rk@cox.net
This is their full page ad out of the ARRL 1940 Radio Amateur's Handbook.
Frequency Range: 550 kHz to 42
MHz Number of Tubes: 6 Years Built: 1939-1940 Original Price: $32.40 Other comments: Internal
Speaker Schematic: Howard 430 Howard 435 and
435-A Howard 435 Howard 435-A Frequency Range: 550 kHz to 40 MHz 550 kHz to 43 MHz Number of Tubes: Years Built: Original Price: Other comments: Internal Speaker, optional
S-Meter Schematic: Howard 436 Howard 436-A Frequency Range: 540 kHz to 43 MHz 540 kHz to 43 MHz Number of Tubes: Years Built: Original Price: Other comments: Internal Speaker, optional
S-Meter, Schematic: N/A Picture courtesy of Fred Osterman N8EKU Howard 437 Howard 437-A Frequency Range: 540 kHz to 43 MHz 540 kHz to 43 MHz Number of Tubes: Years Built: Original Price: Other comments: Internal Speaker, optional
S-Meter, crystal Schematic: N/A Howard 438 Frequency Range: 550 kHz to 43
MHz Number of Tubes: 8 Years Built: 1939 Original Price: $49.95 Other comments: Internal Speaker,
optional crystal filter and S-Meter Schematic: Howard 438 Howard 440 Frequency Range: 550 kHz to 40
MHz Number of Tubes: 9 Years Built: 1938-1939 Original Price: $74.45 Other comments: Requires external
speaker, optional crystal for crystal filter Schematic: Howard 440 with Howard External
Speaker Howard 450 Howard 450-A Frequency Range: 540 kHz to 65 MHz 540 kHz to 65 MHz Number of Tubes: Years Built: Original Price: Other comments: Requires external speaker,
optional crystal Schematic: N/A Frequency Range: 540 kHz to 65
MHz Number of Tubes: 12 Years Built: 1938 Original Price: Unknown Other comments: Internal Speaker,
optional crystal filter and S-Meter Schematic: Howard 460 Picture courtesy of Fred Osterman N8EKU Frequency Range: 540 kHz to 65
MHz Number of Tubes: 12 Years Built: 1938 Original Price: Unknown Other comments: Internal Speaker,
optional crystal filter and S-Meter Schematic: N/A Photos courtesy of Chuck McGregor N7RHU Frequency Range: 540 kHz to 20
MHz Number of Tubes: 18 Years Built: 1942 Original Price: Unknown Other comments: Requires external
speaker, external power supply. Their are many variants of
the SP-200/BC-779 series Schematic: BC-779/SP-200 Super Pro Here is station W9UMS using what looks
like a Howard 450 receiver with Howard external
speaker. Date is unknown - probably late 1930's or
early 1940's.
Updated March 7, 2014
Created January 3, 2003