Dynatron Radio Ltd

The Hacker brothers, Ron (born 1908) and Arthur (born 1910), shared a strong interest in radio, and started a company producing high quality radiograms and wireless receivers at the ages of just 19 and 17 respectively. As they were too young to become directors of a company, the firm was set up using their father's name, Harry Hacker, in 1927.

The firm began in a room above the family grocery shop on Maidenhead High Street, and the first product emerged in 1928 - the Dynatron U53 radiogram. A factory was built in the large rear garden of the family house "Little Gables" in Ray Lea Road in Maidenhead, measuring just 50 by 25 feet initially, but extended several times. In 1936, the company name was changed to Dynatron Radio Ltd.

The Hacker brothers always pursued the highest possible technical quality, and released designs incorporating many valves at a time when their competitors concentrated on reducing the number of valves in their products. For many years, they persisted with the tuned radio frequency receiver (TRF) principle, only adopting superheterodyne receiver (superhet) designs after some 10 years of development.