Keyboard Shortcuts
ctrl + shift + ? :
Show all keyboard shortcuts
ctrl + g :
Navigate to a group
ctrl + shift + f :
Find
ctrl + / :
Quick actions
esc to dismiss
Likes
Search
The Drake 2B and its Frequency Spread Limitations
|
Hello everyone.? I am new here.? Let me know if I become too much of a pain ...
?
I just received a Drake 2B from an eBay seller.? I will admit to a lot of stupidity on my part and a lack of understanding before I pushed the "Purchase now" button.? I purchased this during an emotional stupor because I was looking for a GOOD old tube SW receiver like my Dad used when I was in elementary school in the 60s - a Hallicrafters S-40B.? Mom and Dad were scrimping by with just barely enough money and my Dad picked-up that Hallicrafters from a junk yard and got it working again.? Even though Dad had to walk a mile to work and back because he did not have a car, he gave some priority to buying that Hallicrafters.? And we had a great time listening to stations all over North and South America late into the night (usually ending only when Mom came into the room with her hands on her hips).? I remember the glow on the ceiling and the smell of those hot tubes.? So, after reading a lot of reviews which all kept focusing on the Drake 2B as THE radio to have, I pushed that eBay button and have been waiting where my driveway meets the street ever since.? It showed up yesterday and I unboxed it and started reading the manual.? Boy, am I ever lost!? I am not normally a stupid fellow and I can usually get my brain to cooperate on new and even difficult concepts, but that manual and me have decided to part company.? Surely, there is a better source of information somewhere on how to work this radio!? I have more questions than I believe this group will allow, but let me start with this one:
?
If I understand the manual correctly, and a little simple math, if I purchase ten crystals and fill each of the ten slots, that will give me a total band spread of frequencies of (let's see: a 600 kHz spread per crystal, times ten crystals, equals 6,000 kHz of total frequencies) available on this radio.? Of the frequencies usually collectively available on the LW, MW, and SW bands on most of these old vintage radios (specifically, .5 to 30 MHz), this radio will not tune to the LW or MW groups and will let me listen to only 6 MHz (6 MHz!) of the SW group.? Is that REALLY true?? Surely a coveted radio with owners' comments centering around "I will never give it up" to "I should not have given it up" can do better than that!? Is this true, or will someone here tell me where the secret button is that will allow me to tune in the remainder of the HF field?? Really, I think I goofed and bought a specialized radio that was never intended to be in the hands of a "general receiver" fool.
?
Richard
W2ONE
?
By the way, ever since I unboxed the radio and started sighing heavily with each page turned in that manual, my wife has started standing at the door with her hands on her hips...
? |
¿ªÔÆÌåÓý
Brother I understand the feeling I did the same because I wanted the radio I learned on in1973 but when I bought it and unboxed it, I felt I was reading Chinese. My dad taught me a lot but about the drake he taught me very little, so I too had to embarrass
myself in this forum and ask a simple "how do I solder my microphone for it to work on my drake" question. Don't feel bad these folks are great people and fully understand you
Ralph AD9FM
Sent from my T-Mobile 5G Device Get From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Richard W2ONE via groups.io <cowboyhat@...>
Sent: Saturday, May 17, 2025 9:23:19 PM To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: [DRAKE-RADIO] The Drake 2B and its Frequency Spread Limitations ?
Hello everyone.? I am new here.? Let me know if I become too much of a pain ...
?
I just received a Drake 2B from an eBay seller.? I will admit to a lot of stupidity on my part and a lack of understanding before I pushed the "Purchase now" button.? I purchased this during an emotional stupor because I was looking for a GOOD old tube
SW receiver like my Dad used when I was in elementary school in the 60s - a Hallicrafters S-40B.? Mom and Dad were scrimping by with just barely enough money and my Dad picked-up that Hallicrafters from a junk yard and got it working again.? Even though Dad
had to walk a mile to work and back because he did not have a car, he gave some priority to buying that Hallicrafters.? And we had a great time listening to stations all over North and South America late into the night (usually ending only when Mom came into
the room with her hands on her hips).? I remember the glow on the ceiling and the smell of those hot tubes.? So, after reading a lot of reviews which all kept focusing on the Drake 2B as THE radio to have, I pushed that eBay button and have been waiting where
my driveway meets the street ever since.? It showed up yesterday and I unboxed it and started reading the manual.? Boy, am I ever lost!? I am not normally a stupid fellow and I can usually get my brain to cooperate on new and even difficult concepts, but that
manual and me have decided to part company.? Surely, there is a better source of information somewhere on how to work this radio!? I have more questions than I believe this group will allow, but let me start with this one:
?
If I understand the manual correctly, and a little simple math, if I purchase ten crystals and fill each of the ten slots, that will give me a total band spread of frequencies of (let's see: a 600 kHz spread per crystal, times ten crystals, equals 6,000
kHz of total frequencies) available on this radio.? Of the frequencies usually collectively available on the LW, MW, and SW bands on most of these old vintage radios (specifically, .5 to 30 MHz), this radio will not tune to the LW or MW groups and will let
me listen to only 6 MHz (6 MHz!) of the SW group.? Is that REALLY true?? Surely a coveted radio with owners' comments centering around "I will never give it up" to "I should not have given it up" can do better than that!? Is this true, or will someone here
tell me where the secret button is that will allow me to tune in the remainder of the HF field?? Really, I think I goofed and bought a specialized radio that was never intended to be in the hands of a "general receiver" fool.
?
Richard
W2ONE
?
By the way, ever since I unboxed the radio and started sighing heavily with each page turned in that manual, my wife has started standing at the door with her hands on her hips...
?
|
|
Yes, we've all been there!
On Saturday, May 17, 2025 at 09:39:22 PM EDT, Ralph AD9FM via groups.io <a2r4ever@...> wrote:
Brother I understand the feeling I did the same because I wanted the radio I learned on in1973 but when I bought it and unboxed it, I felt I was reading Chinese. My dad taught me a lot but about the drake he taught me very little, so I too had to embarrass
myself in this forum and ask a simple "how do I solder my microphone for it to work on my drake" question. Don't feel bad these folks are great people and fully understand you
Ralph AD9FM
Sent from my T-Mobile 5G Device Get From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Richard W2ONE via groups.io <cowboyhat@...>
Sent: Saturday, May 17, 2025 9:23:19 PM To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: [DRAKE-RADIO] The Drake 2B and its Frequency Spread Limitations ?
Hello everyone.? I am new here.? Let me know if I become too much of a pain ...
?
I just received a Drake 2B from an eBay seller.? I will admit to a lot of stupidity on my part and a lack of understanding before I pushed the "Purchase now" button.? I purchased this during an emotional stupor because I was looking for a GOOD old tube
SW receiver like my Dad used when I was in elementary school in the 60s - a Hallicrafters S-40B.? Mom and Dad were scrimping by with just barely enough money and my Dad picked-up that Hallicrafters from a junk yard and got it working again.? Even though Dad
had to walk a mile to work and back because he did not have a car, he gave some priority to buying that Hallicrafters.? And we had a great time listening to stations all over North and South America late into the night (usually ending only when Mom came into
the room with her hands on her hips).? I remember the glow on the ceiling and the smell of those hot tubes.? So, after reading a lot of reviews which all kept focusing on the Drake 2B as THE radio to have, I pushed that eBay button and have been waiting where
my driveway meets the street ever since.? It showed up yesterday and I unboxed it and started reading the manual.? Boy, am I ever lost!? I am not normally a stupid fellow and I can usually get my brain to cooperate on new and even difficult concepts, but that
manual and me have decided to part company.? Surely, there is a better source of information somewhere on how to work this radio!? I have more questions than I believe this group will allow, but let me start with this one:
?
If I understand the manual correctly, and a little simple math, if I purchase ten crystals and fill each of the ten slots, that will give me a total band spread of frequencies of (let's see: a 600 kHz spread per crystal, times ten crystals, equals 6,000
kHz of total frequencies) available on this radio.? Of the frequencies usually collectively available on the LW, MW, and SW bands on most of these old vintage radios (specifically, .5 to 30 MHz), this radio will not tune to the LW or MW groups and will let
me listen to only 6 MHz (6 MHz!) of the SW group.? Is that REALLY true?? Surely a coveted radio with owners' comments centering around "I will never give it up" to "I should not have given it up" can do better than that!? Is this true, or will someone here
tell me where the secret button is that will allow me to tune in the remainder of the HF field?? Really, I think I goofed and bought a specialized radio that was never intended to be in the hands of a "general receiver" fool.
?
Richard
W2ONE
?
By the way, ever since I unboxed the radio and started sighing heavily with each page turned in that manual, my wife has started standing at the door with her hands on her hips...
?
|
|
Richard, you are correct, the 2B (or any ham band-only Drake) is not a general coverage receiver in the current sense of Japanese radios. While it can be made to receive almost all segments of the 2-30 MHz shortwave frequencies, performance will suffer somewhat as you move away from the 5 major ham bands.
?
But you need not be concerned too much about the 6 MHz total coverage available in the radio, since the 2-30 MHz frequency range is mostly empty space these days. Focus on the ham bands and SW broadcast bands you want to listen to, and try to find crystals to cover the ranges you care about. It won't be an easy task these days as few crystal makers are still around.
?
What I did was to buy one of the little Chinese VFO units (around $40 in pre-tariff days on eBay or Amazon), and made a cable with the base of an old HC-6/U crystal that I sacrificed. You can plug that cable into one of the crystal sockets of the 2B to use in place of one of the expensive crystals. Put the VFO into TX mode and do the math to determine the HFO frequency you need for your band of interest. It works pretty well, actually. Maybe not as good as the S-40B, but it works.
?
Dave |
|
Ha!? Dave,
?
I suspect you are correct!? I probably do not need to be concerned about letting so much of the HF frequencies escape my grasp - nothing there anymore, anyway.? OK, well if I can figure out where to concentrate my listening pleasure (the commercial and public and private broadcasts of music and news), then I will start a search for the crystals to get that job done and stop crying about not getting the remainder of the frequencies.
?
Richard
W2ONE
? |
¿ªÔÆÌåÓý
Wikipedia has a good
list of the major bands for short wave broadcast stations. Note
that a number of broadcasters operate outside these ranges. You don't have 10
(looks likes 12 band switch positions looking at the manual I
downloaded) positions that you can put any crystal into.? The
preselector, the RF amplifier which is the first stage of the
receiver, has 5 bands, A, B, C, D, and E.? The A tuning range is
covers from 3.5 to 5.0 MHz only ans is wired to the 80 and the A
switch positions. You could put a crystal in the A position to
cover the 60 meter SWL band, 4.75-4.995 MHz but not one for the
49 m band, 5.9 to 6.2 MHz.? The B range is from 4.6 to 13.5 MHz
and is wired to 40 and B. the C range is from 7.5 to 23.5 and is
wired to the C position only. The D range is from 8.4 to 25.5
and is on the D switch only. The E range is from 10.3 to 30 MHz
and is wired to the E position as well as 20, 15, and 10 meter
bands.? So the bands you choose to crystal for have to fit
within limited switch positions. Fortunately there is a large
overlap the the B, C, D and E ranges.? The ham band crystals can
be removed and replaced with SWL band crystals, matched to the
same preselector range. (assuming the receiver comes with the
factory standard ham band crystals) If you are adapt with electronics, I would also recommend the suggestion from Dave, W7GZ to use one of the cheap Chinese synthesizer modules. You can buy one for about the cost of a single crystal.? Drake made a synthesizer, the FS-4, to replace crystals for their various receivers tuning in 500 kHz bands, and there have been a few articles for similar designs. Here's one such showing how it's connected to the receiver.? John???? KK6IL?? Former
SPR-4 owner ? On 5/17/2025 6:23 PM, Richard W2ONE via
groups.io wrote:
|
to navigate to use esc to dismiss