Because the factory lighting for the 2-B's dial leaves a bit to be desired - particularly in the center portions of the dial, I tried something a little different and mounted a few SMD LEDs and dropping resistors on a small piece of prototyping circuit board. The LEDs point straight up from underneath the dial window.
The 2-B-1 picture shows them illuminated (without the rig powered off so as not to include the side lighting). The 2-B-2 picture shows the crude board (with masking tape to hold it to ad small piece of wood that elevates the board just above the top of the slide switch bodies). If you zoom in on the board, please excuse the very sloppy soldering work. Those 0805 chips are pretty small...
As you can see, this creates just a bit of a shadow of the needle against the white backing plate so I'm not sure how much I like this but at least it is more uniformly lighted across the dial. I may pursue a formal PCB with several more LEDs that might help eliminate some of that shadowing.
Anyway, just thought I'd share.
Thanks,
Barry - N4BUQ
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So today a care package arrived from Noble Radio. A 450Hz CW filter. A true work of art. I did not delay in installing it. Had to do some cleanup on the filter card; somebody had done a messy remove of its original filters - all except the standard 2.3kHz SSB filter. Possibly my Ebay seller. After all, why sell an INOP rig full of expensive separately-saleable filters?
It works great. Single-signal CW reception.
While I was in there, I did the mod that lets the carrier control work with SSB. It's just one wire tacked to two
terminals on the mode switch.
I also fixed the loose coax terminal I mentioned earlier. It turned out that the "clip" part had come undone. Now
it's nice & tight.
Then I did something purely cosmetic: pulled off all the knobs and treated them to an ultrasonic cleaner bath.
Except for the Mode switch and the Aux Program switch. Those don't seem to have setscrews. How do they come off?
The white paint inside some of the pointer knobs - white paint inside a groove - is a bit discolored and perished.
I may want to redo it.
- Jerry, KF6VB
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4 Line. The 2¡¯s ?are not the same.?
Steve Wedge, W1ES/4
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
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On Sat, May 6, 2023 at 19:46, Richard Knoppow < 1oldlens1@...> wrote: A little low S-9 on a Drake should be 30 uV.
-------- Original message -------- From: Clark WU4B <clark.macaulay@...> Date: 5/6/23 2:46 PM (GMT-08:00) Subject: [DRAKE-RADIO] 2-A S-Meter Reading
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A little low S-9 on a Drake should be 30 uV.
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-------- Original message -------- From: Clark WU4B <clark.macaulay@...> Date: 5/6/23 2:46 PM (GMT-08:00) Subject: [DRAKE-RADIO] 2-A S-Meter Reading
I have a very clean (for a 60 year old radio) 2-A that I'm checking out for selling. It has been my bench receiver for years and seems to work fine.? All voltages check out fine.? for a 50 uV signal on 40m, what should the S reading be? I'm getting S7.? All caps are the original and I've peaked the 455 KC transformer.??
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I am fairly sure that during the 2 series, S9 is 50 uV. The others here will correct me if I¡¯m wrong. I can¡¯t remember if the 2-A had any paper capacitors (the 2-B has film capacitors that look similar to paper ones). If the can cap isn¡¯t leaky, keep it. I haven¡¯t seen a 2-B with a bad one, for some reason.?
73,
Steve Wedge, W1ES/4
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
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On Sat, May 6, 2023 at 12:54, Clark WU4B < clark.macaulay@...> wrote: I have a very clean (for a 60 year old radio) 2-A that I'm checking out for selling. It has been my bench receiver for years and seems to work fine.? All voltages check out fine.? for a 50 uV signal on 40m, what should the S reading be? I'm getting S7.? All caps are the original and I've peaked the 455 KC transformer.??
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I have a very clean (for a 60 year old radio) 2-A that I'm checking out for selling. It has been my bench receiver for years and seems to work fine.? All voltages check out fine.? for a 50 uV signal on 40m, what should the S reading be? I'm getting S7.? All caps are the original and I've peaked the 455 KC transformer.??
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Re: Using a resistor with 6BN8 filament
On Sat, May 6, 2023 at 01:33 PM, william stevens wrote:
Rick
My 2 B is SN. 9200 and it uses 8BN8¡¯s
Bill, You are absolutely right!?? I screwed up! (That never happens does it?) I see what I did now!!? Late last night I had both schematics on my desktop....? the 2-B? was a DJVU file and the 2-A has both.?? My browser will directly open the PDF but not the DJVU.? I have to save it first! (and I "saved-as" the 2-B as? 2A.djvu!!) The 2-A of course, uses a 6AV6 driving the 6AQ5 audio amp and the 2-B uses the 6BN8 (triode section) to drive the 6AQ5. Drake was clearly trying to save pennies and keep the tube count down and used the tri-section 8BN8 and/or 6BN8 Then they really reduced it in the 2-C That 2A schematic from Bama was particularly bad resolution..... --
73/Rick
WA6III
*Every post is created using Linux
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Re: Using a resistor with 6BN8 filament
My 2B is s/n 2974 and it uses an 8BN8. May 1961 is printed on the S-meter rear cover.
Food for thought: if all of the filaments were floating, instead of being grounded on one side, would this 'rectified' hum problem manifest itself?
Maybe not, but production would be a bit more labour intensive. Drake employed bean counters too.73.
Ken, VE3FIT
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Re: Using a resistor with 6BN8 filament
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On May 6, 2023, at 4:50 PM, william stevens via groups.io <197174stevens@...> wrote:
? Rick? The 8bn8 is used for 3 things bias rect,noise Lim, audio amp see attached      On May 6, 2023, at 3:35 PM, Rick WA6III <myr748@...> wrote:
?On Sat, May 6, 2023 at 11:53 AM, william stevens wrote:
Folks
Surplus sales of Nebraska has 8BN8¡¯s for $ 2.50 but he requires a min buy on most of his stock and they could be very old stock
Bill
WB2UFC
Indeed! I have bought several tubes from them!? They have so much "good stuff" that even if I want only 1 tube I usually get 2 or 3 and I always need other tubes and stuff too!? I am a little late to this Drake 2B party? but when I looked at the BAMA manual for the 2B, it didn't show an 8BN8 in the schematic. The 2A does.? Does the (very) early 2B's use it too? and if they do, whom ever has one, could you scan your manual and put it on BAMA?? It would sure help someone else that has an early one with no manual..... ? --
73/Rick
WA6III
*Every post is created using Linux
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Re: Using a resistor with 6BN8 filament
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On May 6, 2023, at 3:35 PM, Rick WA6III <myr748@...> wrote:
?On Sat, May 6, 2023 at 11:53 AM, william stevens wrote:
Folks
Surplus sales of Nebraska has 8BN8¡¯s for $ 2.50 but he requires a min buy on most of his stock and they could be very old stock
Bill
WB2UFC
Indeed! I have bought several tubes from them!? They have so much "good stuff" that even if I want only 1 tube I usually get 2 or 3 and I always need other tubes and stuff too!? I am a little late to this Drake 2B party? but when I looked at the BAMA manual for the 2B, it didn't show an 8BN8 in the schematic. The 2A does.? Does the (very) early 2B's use it too? and if they do, whom ever has one, could you scan your manual and put it on BAMA?? It would sure help someone else that has an early one with no manual..... ? --
73/Rick
WA6III
*Every post is created using Linux
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Re: Using a resistor with 6BN8 filament
Rick My 2 B is SN. 9200 and it uses 8BN8¡¯s
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On May 6, 2023, at 3:35 PM, Rick WA6III <myr748@...> wrote:
?On Sat, May 6, 2023 at 11:53 AM, william stevens wrote:
Folks
Surplus sales of Nebraska has 8BN8¡¯s for $ 2.50 but he requires a min buy on most of his stock and they could be very old stock
Bill
WB2UFC
Indeed! I have bought several tubes from them!? They have so much "good stuff" that even if I want only 1 tube I usually get 2 or 3 and I always need other tubes and stuff too!? I am a little late to this Drake 2B party? but when I looked at the BAMA manual for the 2B, it didn't show an 8BN8 in the schematic. The 2A does.? Does the (very) early 2B's use it too? and if they do, whom ever has one, could you scan your manual and put it on BAMA?? It would sure help someone else that has an early one with no manual..... ? --
73/Rick
WA6III
*Every post is created using Linux
|
Re: Using a resistor with 6BN8 filament
On Sat, May 6, 2023 at 11:53 AM, william stevens wrote:
Folks
Surplus sales of Nebraska has 8BN8¡¯s for $ 2.50 but he requires a min buy on most of his stock and they could be very old stock
Bill
WB2UFC
Indeed! I have bought several tubes from them!? They have so much "good stuff" that even if I want only 1 tube I usually get 2 or 3 and I always need other tubes and stuff too!? I am a little late to this Drake 2B party? but when I looked at the BAMA manual for the 2B, it didn't show an 8BN8 in the schematic. The 2A does.? Does the (very) early 2B's use it too? and if they do, whom ever has one, could you scan your manual and put it on BAMA?? It would sure help someone else that has an early one with no manual..... ? --
73/Rick
WA6III
*Every post is created using Linux
|
Re: Using a resistor with 6BN8 filament
Folks
Surplus sales of Nebraska has 8BN8¡¯s for $ 2.50 but he requires a min buy on most of his stock and they could be very old stock
Bill
WB2UFC
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On Fri, 05 May 2023 15:39:40 -0700 "jerry-KF6VB" <jerry@...> wrote: Mine is missing some. Looks like the screws that hold the top on,
are UNC 4-40 - look like about 1/4 inch long. But what sort of head?
There is an impossible variety of screw heads out there. They are 4-40. I've seen both slotted and Phillips used depending on the age of the gear. Could be round or pan head I suppose, I never gave it much thought. Use what suits you. Don't over think it, it is just a screw. Also missing a few internal screws - the ones that hold the bottom
cover. Those seem to be self-tapping sheetmetal
screws. One of the holes has graduated to the next size :(. Correct. ISTM that they are #4 sheet metal screws. On one of my rigs the upper card cage cover rear screws long ago graduated to the next size up. With the thin sheet metal some of the threads are delicate. Especially the screws for card cage covers. Tighten them snug but do not over tighten them! All of the cage cover screws need to be there and snug for RF tightness. 73 -Jim NU0C
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Re: Using a resistor with 6BN8 filament
I have a Kenwood TS-820S that received fine but would not transmit. The AGC voltage was way off. I looked at it on and off for months, hobbled by the fact that Kenwood did not provide a table of voltages with the schematic diagram. I finally found a disc ceramic cap that measured 35,000 ohms that was dragging down the high impedance AGC line. First time in many decades of repairing radios to find a bad disc ceramic cap, and this one only had 4 volts of stress on it.
73, Graham, N6GH
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On May 5, 2023, at 5:10 PM, Steve Wedge, W1ES/4 via groups.io <w1es@...> wrote:
?
I¡¯ve been looking more closely at the schematic and there¡¯s something around V6 that isn¡¯t right.?
I know that ceramic caps don¡¯t commonly leak but I¡¯ll need to check them all around the supply.?
I tried removing all tubes except the ones involved in the bias supply, with no luck. Negative voltages everywhere are off from spec.?
73, Steve Wedge, W1ES/4
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
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On Fri, May 5, 2023 at 19:22, Richard Knoppow < 1oldlens1@...> wrote: Should read 5 ohms.?
-------- Original message -------- From: Richard Knoppow <1oldlens1@...> Date: 5/5/23 4:07 PM (GMT-08:00) Subject: Re: [DRAKE-RADIO] Using a resistor with 6BN8 filament
Along about 1945 (very approximately) it became common to run 6H6 tubes used as series noise limiters with reduced filament voltage. Typically any Ohm resistor in series with the filament.? Thisbwas.toneliminate hum.? I have never seen it discussed in any text. I can't remember the correct term but think it was to reduce a space charge virtual cathode.? ?Not seen it used for detectors. I also don't remember if it's applied to 6AL5 tubes.? It's possible a series resistor on a 6BN8 might work in place of the other tube.
-------- Original message -------- From: ve3fit@... Date: 5/5/23 2:45 PM (GMT-08:00) Subject: Re: [DRAKE-RADIO] Using a resistor with 6BN8 filament
The 8BN8 filament spec is actually 8.4V and .45A. So, Drake runs them at 3/4 of their rated voltage to eliminate
the hum. Would running a 6.3V tube at 3/4 of it's rated filament voltage have the same effect?
My calculations show that a suitable dropping resistor to do this would be dissipating almost a watt.
I guess that using an 8BN8 was a cost-effective solution at the time.
Ken, VE3FIT
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Cabinet screws are flat heads.??
On Fri, May 5, 2023, 18:39 jerry-KF6VB < jerry@...> wrote: All,
? ? Mine is missing some.? Looks like the screws that hold the top on,
are UNC 4-40 - look like about 1/4 inch long.? But what sort of head??
There is an impossible variety of screw heads out there.
? ? Also missing a few internal screws - the ones that hold the bottom
cover.? Those seem to be self-tapping sheetmetal
screws.? One of the holes has graduated to the next size :(.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?- Jerry, KF6VB
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R-4C wire with no end stop
On the back of the print on the MODE/FILTER switch in my R-4C there is a 3 cm wire with no end stop. It is soldered onto the shield of the coax cable, and the solder looks original. Any idea what it is supposed to do? Serial number 18xxx.
Thanks.
Peter OZ8CTH
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Re: Using a resistor with 6BN8 filament
Like Dan mentioned,? thanks for posting your work Steve (and others).? It's great to learn from your experiences.
John K5MO
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Re: enhancing the speaker in the Ac-4 power supply?
As others note, the speaker, the enclosure, and the audio amp you have there are all compromises.? Add in age, and possible slight misalignment of your receiver (which can make audio less clear), and you have what you have.? I had considered many of the suggestions others have made, but took a different tack.? I installed one of the BHI DSP audio amps into the MS-4 enclosure ? I put the keyboard on the bottom, so that it looked otherwise stock.? The built-in amp (5W?) allowed me to run the Drake amp at a lower level with lower distortion.? Add in a touch of DSP noise reduction when needed, and it greatly enhances the audio from the old girl. I no longer feel like I need to upgrade the speaker, but know that the extra power available would allow me to choose a replacement based on sound rather efficiency and oval form factor.? As others have noted, round speaker cones generally sound better.? If you still decide to swap the speaker, a small speaker such as those in guitar "practice" amplifiers might be interesting to try, especially if you can get one for free from a non=working amp.
Good luck!
Eric
WK3B
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Re: Using a resistor with 6BN8 filament
Lesson learnt. I was trying to quickly find one and you see what that got me.?
Carry on¡
Steve Wedge, W1ES/4
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
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On Sat, May 6, 2023 at 00:09, Rick WA6III < myr748@...> wrote: Oh, and by the way for everyone,? I have also found that eBay is not always the best (or cheapest) place to find tubes.
--
73/Rick
WA6III
*Every post is created using Linux
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Jim Shorney
