Finished Drake AM Station

[WD8BIL]

Without getting in the Technical stuff, here's a few pictures of the modified Drake R4A and T4X.
The R4A has the Softrock 6.2 I.F. converter in the blue PacTec box and the T4X carrier control has been mounted in a Shadio Rack project box. The front panel of which has a paper paste on made up with MS Paint.
Look fo me on A.M. 160 - 10 Meters.

[Steve - K4HX]

That's both a nice looking and nice sounding set up. Congratulations.

[K1JJ]

Cool, you made your own Drake box for the carrier control. Looks authentic.  And it's 21st Century tech with the SoftRock off the I.F.   Sync detector, pan adapter, any freq.

We be hearing you all over the bands now, and in hi-fi disco duck audio!  [caw mawn]


T

[WD8BIL]

Roger on that Mr.Vu! On the air and on to the next project!

So did you finally get the package I sent ya?

[WA3VJB]

Well I hope the "Viking Bud" doesn't feel like chopped liver all of a sudden.

Still, very cool on details, right down to the correct knob on your carrier box. HI HI FB OM

[K1JJ]

Roger on that Mr.Vu! On the air and on to the next project!

So did you finally get the package I sent ya?

Vely FB.  Amazing how small details like that make all the difference.  The Drake gear really is a FB set up. I had the twins about 5 years back and did all the Sherwood mods, including the AM mod you did. Some DXers still use Drakes for the low synth noise.

Yes, gots your Softrock 455 board and it works FB, OM!  Until I get this HPSDR project working I will make good use of the loaner. Tnx again.

T

[AF9J]

VERY nice Buddly!   When I got out of college as a "broke, and unemployed" engineering grad in 1987, I got my hands on an R4B, and T4XC, since they were all I could afford at the time, that would get me back on 160 (which I'd developed a fondness for, when operating the Univ. of WI club station).  When I got my Advanced, in 1993, I sold them, in order to "upgrade" my station, since I had just upgraded my license.  Big mistake.  Last year, I got my hands on another set of "sort of" Drake Twins - an R4A, and a T4X.  The R4A has been doing duty with my Viking II, as my AM receiver,  but the T4X, hasn't been powered up yet.  I really need to get an AC4 (or do a conversion to an HP23) so I can get the T4X up and running, since the DC4 supply I got for use as a cheapo way to power the T4X, won't cut it (it turns out that my Astron RS-35A is marginal for meeting the DC power requirements).  

Did you also open up the T4X transmit bandwidth?

73,
Ellen - AF9J

[WD8BIL]

Vu: ain't no loaner, Man! It be urs. Treasure it

Paul: I have the Viking Bud holding court on 160M. He got a good cleaning today with some fresh grease for his gears. Gotta keep the mainstay happy!

Ellen:Gee..... in the past getting Drake Twins WAS an upgrade! As for the T4X bandwidth on AM... it's limited by the coupling in the mic amp. This mod "opens" it up by using BIG coupling caps. I used .15uf 400V dipped mylars (3). The new audio input is an RCA jack on the back and the first .15 goes from there to the input of the 2nd audio amp (12AX7B). The screen of the driver (12BY7) is modulated directly and the finals are just used as a leenyar!

So, since the modulation is imposed after the mix filters the bandwidth is wide open with this mod.

Try it .......... you'll like it.

K1JJ, W2JBL Drake Mods

[AF9J]

Hmmmmm, sounds cool!   As for the "upgrade" I did, that resulted in me selling my first xste of Drake Twins - in that case, I viewed modernizing my setup, by getting a Ten Tec Delta II, as an upgrade.  Frankly, the Ten Tec may have been more frequency agile, due to its no tune finals, but other than that, the R4B was a better receiver.  Oh well.

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Buddly, that is one nice job. Looks great!

Wonder if that was the station you were using with Ralphie last week on '33? Whatever it was, your audio was probably the best/clearest I've ever heard. You were both coming in 10-20 over S9 and sounding excellent.

The Drake gear continues to be overlooked and under rated by many of the "collectors", making it one of the best deals available in old tube equipment IMO. I used an early R4 as a bedside receiver for a few years, worked well.

[WD8BIL]

Todd axed:

Wonder if that was the station you were using with Ralphie last week on '33? Whatever it was, your audio was probably the best/clearest I've ever heard. You were both coming in 10-20 over S9 and sounding excellent.

Most likely it was, Todd. I've been using it on 75/80M since the new year and have the Viking Bud holding court on 160M.

With the simplicity of this mod there's no reason someone who has these radios could say they ain't got nothin' for AM!

[KX5JT]

Hi Bud!

Very nice to work you this evening.  The Drake station sounds AMAZING!!  Kudos.

John

[n1eu]

With the simplicity of this mod there's no reason someone who has these radios could say they ain't got nothin' for AM!

Other than soft-rocking, are there any rx mods to open up the R-4A/B LC filter beyond 4.8Khz?  Inrad offers 6 and 8 Khz filters for the first i.f. - it should be possible to make a nice native a.m. rx out of the R-4A/B, ja?

Barry

[W2VW]

Good stuff Buddly.

[K1JJ]

Buddly, I was listening to you on 75M last night working KF5IIA/Brandon and KX5JT/John.  As before, your audio has nice peaks and headroom - and was very clean with that Drake. It's like hearing you for the first time compared to the other rigs you have. Get rid of that other stuff and row the Drake around on the other bands!  

Brandon was the channelmaster up here at +25 over. That new phased dipole array works like a bomb. I cud even hear his step-start clearly in the background. John was about S9 and Buddly, you were about +10 over. LONG conditions.

***  BTW, heard youse guys talking about SoftRock and Brandon looking to jump in with one, but not knowing the technology yet. How's this idea?...  I just tore down the SoftRock lashup that you sent me and will be substituting in the new HPSDR rig. What say I send this 455 khz SoftRock to Brandon to get him started?  Once he decides what he wants to do with SDR, he can either pass it on to someone else under the same terms or send it back to you?     This SoftRock technology will probably be a good starter for years to come, so this wud be a great loaner to get guys acclimated.  Call it the "Buddly Softrock Loaner."  Whatda think?

T

[WD8BIL]

Hi Vu,

1) I can't get rid of the Viking Bud! it wud be like cutting off my left.............. arm!
    (had ya worried there, didn't I!)
But now the the Drake's up n' runnin' I got plans to improve the VB. Stay tuned!

2) I think that's a great idea!! Go ahead and send it to him. I'll start an email converse with him to help him get started.

Yu da Man, VU!