After the bankruptcy of the initial Silver - Marshall Manufacturing Co. of Chicago, the company was taken over by radio engineer Bill Halligan in 1934, a new company emerged which was almost entirely devoted to the construction of communications receivers, the Hallicrafters, Inc..

With the S-1 Sky Rider, an inexpensive five-tube receiver was introduced in 1934, it gave access to beginners to the shortwave spectrum at an affordable price. In early 1935, with the Super Skyrider or S-4, a first superhet receiver with 7 tubes followed. In the coming years, several receivers in parallel quality classes and price ranges followed with rapidly increasing type numbers.

The cheapest receivers were the Sky Buddy entry-level receivers, which were quickly produced in large numbers and popular due to their good price-performance ratio. During the war years, the double conversion set SX-28 was produced in large numbers, but after the end of the war, the focus turned back to the demands of radio amateurs.

The S-38 as successor to the Sky Buddy was an entry-level model revised several times and it was adapted to the technical progress in it's design and in the tube layout. A first S-40 single conversion receiver was introduced in 1946, the S-40A followed in 1950 and shortly after the S-40B with slight tube modification. According to a Hallicrafters advertisement of 1950, it was at that time the „world's most popular ham receiver“. From 1951 onwards, a line of double conversion receivers of very similar external appearance was launched in parallel with the S-76.

The SX-42 followed in 1947, after being announced as the first all wave receiver, the set with the widest frequency range. For the first time, all frequencies up to 108 MHz, which was the then new FM broadcast band, were covered. In addition, the set came with a push pull AF stage, which helped to achieve nearly hi-fi performance. Its successor was the SX-62 Globemaster with a horizontal dial.

From 1954, receivers with their characteristic two semicircular dials for coarse tuning and bandspread were introduced, the SX-100 was produced in several variants until 1962. This receiver generation was then replaced by sets with a horinzontal dial dominating the front panel. Hallicrafters sets were introduced in rapidly changing model succession, usually a whole range of different receivers for listeners with different demands and pockets. As a rule of the thumb, the receivers designated SX were equipped with more selective quartz filters offer better performance on the bands.

The Hallicrafters co. company after 1966 has seen several new owners: Northrop and then other owners. Even in the 1970s, receivers from other manufacturers were sold bearing the hallicrafters brand logo.

• Hallicrafters on www.radiomuseum.org
• Dachis, Chuck: Radios by Hallicrafters, Schiffer Publishing Ltd, Atglen, PA 19310, USA
• Moore, Raymond,S.: Communikations Receivers, RSM Communications, LaBelle, FL 33975, USA
• Osterman, Fred: Receivers Past & Present, Universal Radio Research, Reynoldsburg, OH 43068, USA, ISBN 1-882123-07-7