Note
QST, Sep 1964, p. 119.
Allied Radio catalog 1966 (copyright 1965), p. 363.
The Hammarlund HQ-88 remains one of the more notable pieces of vintage ham radio "vaporware." Hammarlund generated preliminary promotional flyers and spec-sheet literature advertising the HQ-88 as an upcoming SSB/CW/AM receiver, but the project was shelved before production ever got underway.
Advertining for the HQ-88 first appeared in the September 1964 issue of QST. And it made it into the 1966 (copyright 1965) issue of the Allied Radio catalog. The catalog was typically assembled in the summer of a particular year and printed in Sepetmber of the year before the issue date. In other words, the 1966 catalog would have been "put to bed" (as they used to say in the printing biz) and mailed late in 1965. This suggest that as late as summer 1965 Hammarlund still thought they could get the HQ-88 into production.
As far as can be determined, no factory assembly lines were set up, no schematics or user manuals were printed for full production, and no official serial-numbered units were ever distributed to dealers or the public. Outside of the rare promotional flyers that occasionally surface, no physical production receivers exist.
The attached promotional brochures describe the unit in detail.
References
Brief description. Electronics World, Dec 1964, p. 84.
Brief description. Popular Electronics, Dec 1964, p .22.
