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Sideband Red lenses
6
I had one of the red side band lenses pop out and thought I'd lost it forever because it was so small, but lucky for me I found it! How do I keep it from falling out again? A little crazy glue or something? This is a replacement face plate that I bought online because the original was very scratched up and I threw it out when I got the new faceplate. So I forgot if this new one is a NOS or a reprint face plate. Mark
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DRAKE USERS NET UPDATE ( March 23, 2025 )
Today's Drake User's Net yielded the following check-ins: B line: 1 C line: 3 TR4: 3 TR5: 3 TR7: 9 Other brands: 9 For a total of 28 check-ins. Next week, net control will be Ron, WB4HFN. 73, Mark, WB0IQK
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2B S-Meter Puzzle
18
There's probably a simple fix for this, but the problem is kicking my butt. I have a 2B on the bench -- nice specimen -- the copper isn't the greatest, but I've seen worse. Someone recapped it in the past and did a decent job with a Hayseed Hamfest recap kit. The S-meter in this one was performing correctly for me, and then suddenly dipped down to around S-1 on all signals and won't go above that. I can see meter movement, but it's now not tracking with the RF gain at all. AVC is in good shape, and varies as it should with the RF gain control. The zero pot works. Tried swapping out V1 and V5 to no avail. Any suggestions before I do a bad thing like shotgun tubes? 73 - Steve, KW4H
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Does anyone know a source for the clips that are used to stack the 7 line units, like an SP-75 on top of an MS-7 or other units. I think I can make something out of thin metal if I can find some. All comments are appreciated. Bob
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For Sale Drake Novice Station
I am selling my Drake Novice Station which is complete with a Drake 2NT transmitter, R2C receiver with xtal calibrator, all original band xtals, and a Johnson 122 VFO. All 3 have been gone through, and recapped. All tubes checked, and weak tubes replaced with new. Package includes all interconnecting cables, original factory manuals for the 2NT & R2C, and reprint manual for the Johnson VFO. This station operates very well, and while the transmitter will put out full rated power, I never exceeded the novice 75w input as indicated by the red line in the meter. Everything you need to put it on the air is there with the exception of your key, speaker & antenna. It's essentially a plug and play station. If I were to nit pick, there is a tiny bit of noise when adjusting the receiver volume control near the bottom range which goes away when you stop turning it. Probably could use a shot of deoxit. My only reason for selling is because I'm in my mid 80's, and trying not to leave technical stuff for my family to sort out. I am asking $550.00 for all 3 units, and prefer local pickup at my qth in Oakland CA where you can try it out. If I end up having to ship it, I will pack everything at my expense, with the buyer paying the actual shipping cost. If shipped, I prefer PayPal + fees or Family and Friends. No warranty or returns, but you will not be disappointed. This is a fun rig to operate and I've always received excellent signal reports. I am good on QRZ where you can view my station, and I welcome any serious inquiries. I'll give it a week or two before listing it on qth.com and the West Coast Swap Net. David Cuttler KE6YX
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R-7A and RV-75 for sale in the USA
4
FWIW I saw this on the Premium-RX list yesterday.... <Snip> 1. FOR SALE (Daniel Robinson) As part of a large slimming of the collection here, offering the following items. I'll be adding to this in coming days. I'll send photos to those contacting me. All in excellent condition: FS: Drake R-7A and RV-75 VFO I have no connection with the seller other than knowing he is a long time collector of very fine (and pricey!) radios. No prices were listed. He has many other very fine receivers for sale as well. Contact; Dan Robinson dxace1@... 73 Peter VE7PS
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Just got a TR-4CW that as far as I can tell works pretty well except that the dial is WAY OFF. I had a station on 7.220 Mhz on the Drake but when I went to go find it on my Yaesu FT-990 (which is spot on!) the same station was on 7.244Mhz. I was trying to align the dial by holding the ring and moving the tuning knob. I was trying little increments but I was making small progress so I turned it alot (but not to the point of binding it or breaking it) and now I don't know what frequency I am on? And I can't find that station again. Also, I was trying to turn the dial very VERY slow (with the tuning dial not the ring) and when I do that the numbers itself will STOP turning and I have to turn a little faster for the numbers to start moving. I'm STUCK! Mark
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I have a TR-4C in good working order. I'd rather own a TR-3 in good working order. My TR-4C is in good cosmetic condition (pics attached). I'd like the same in return. Please email me directly. Thanks ... David KD4E
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Not able to adjust power supply for 1mA
14
After I found the short in my TR-4CW (the short was causing both the transmitter and the receiver to be both on at the same time) I now can not adjust the power supply for 100mA's according to the TR-4C Instruction manual. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Thank You! Mark
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Service Monitor
3
I'm looking to add a service monitor to my repair bench. I mostly work on HF, VHF and a few UHF rigs. Although old, I always liked IFR-1200s (with tracking generator), but I presume there are better options nowadays. Anyway, a good, well calibrated 1200 would be ok. I'm asking for opinion, or perspective about a brand and model to purchase. And not expensive, mine's just a little more than a hobbyist repair bench. TIA Regards LU5WE - Guillermo.
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New to me TR7
14
Hi all, I'm new to the group. Bob, W4JFA from NC. I acquired a TR7 along with the matching power supply. This is what I see so far... Powers up, no receive or transmit. Well virtually no receive. I can tune down to the top of the AM broadcast band and find a station that's normally plenty strong but I can barely tell it's there when hooked up to a 160 meter dipole. No "S" meter movement. If I transmit on 160 meters with another radio, the TR7 will barely hear it with a two foot wire on it. If the radio is on and you put a wire or PL-259 into the antenna jack, you hear no static or crackle at all while hooking it up. Sometimes when a button is pushed such as NB or PBT, the receive goes away and the digital readout goes crazy like 17.xxxxxxx and cannot be tuned. One time after leaving it powered down overnight, the readout was back the next morning. I do notice that going from transmit to receive I hear the relay click. My radio repair ability is... I've repaired many radios over the years but there's also been radios that the problem is beyond my capability. Those are usually the newer ones with the surface mount stuff that you can hardly see. Older "through hole" circuits I usually do fairly well with. I do have a scope, frequency counter, signal generator, newer high impedance DVOM's, dummy loads, etc. I was licensed in 1992. A friend back then had a TR7. My Dad was a ham so I was around it in the 60's. I thought I'd try to get licensed in 1970 but all of a sudden cars and girls became more important than my Dad's morse code records, if you know what I mean. I won't be able to get serious about this repair for a couple of weeks but I'm gathering information when I can. I did download a manual. Thank you all for reading and letting me join your group. 73, Bob W4JFA
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New owner for R7 with couple of question
5
Hi members, A couple of weeks ago, I bougth a R7 receiver, now I have two question, as the preamplifer doesn?t work and the 2N5109 seems to be impossible to buy here, I?m wondering if there are any recommend replacement for this transistor to use in the R7. The second question is , as the 4KHz filter for AM is good for DX but narrow for a confortable program listening, I want to ask if some one has experience/recommendation to add the resister as per manual should be as replacement for the 4000Hz filter, but I want to use this resister in the 500Hz optional space filter, because I don?t want to loose the 4000hz filtering. Many thanks Claudio Lu7DW
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Works on SSB, but on CW it only momentarily keys showing a jump on wattmeter needle. Watching and both K-1 and K-2 relays are doing this. I've replaced the VOX tube and the 12BA6 as well as experimented with the VOX and Anti-VOX controls. Raising and lowering gain has no effect. I am about out of things to try. The schematic is not of much help. Terry WB0VQP
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TR-4CW
29
I have a new to me TR-4CW and when I turn off the rig it makes a "chirp or a mouse sound." Best I can describe. Is that normal? Mark
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I recently acquired a Drake TR-4CW from Ebay. Not knowing the condition of the tubes I also bought a complete set of tubes that are for the TR-4C. Only thing I didn't like is that the 6JB6's are Zenith and not Sylvania because inside the rig it tells you to only use Sylvania otherwise you must do some extra work. I read somewhere that you have to neutralize the output tubes and a fast way of doing it is to tune up the rig on 10 meters, shut it off, disconnect the screen voltage then connect a T connector to the output and the straight thru port to a dummy load. Then you connect the T part to an oscilloscope and adjust the neutralization cap for minimal signal. I did that and it worked out perfectly! I was listening on 40 meters for about 15 minutes and everything sounded well! I did not transmit because I just wanted to listen to that nice Drake sound for a little bit. I switch it off and turn it back on 2 days later. I'm waiting for the audio to come up but I hear NOTHING. I then see the plate current on the meter start swinging back and forth then the needle stops then starts to move up scale. I managed to shut it off about midscale. I turn it back on and notice that it blew the 5 amp fuse in the MS-4 power supply. I'm thinking the finals are oscillating? But why are they oscillating if I just neutralized them, also I was NOT transmiiting. I'm not in X-CW and my microphone is not even attached. I'm also thinking maybe one of the NOS tubes that I just put in has a short? Not certain what a shorted tube would do but I am just trying to figure out this problem. I then started thinking, "Why am I not getting any sound?" So....I removed all of the NOS tubes that I just put in AND pulled out the 3 final tubes and taped up the resistor plate wires (or whatever they are called) and put back in the original tubes (that worked without any issues) and see if I can at least get sound. Turn it on, no sound. Thinking, do the finals have to be put back in to get the receive to work (I know most likely not but let's just try it) So I put the Sylvania's back in instead of the Zenith's and turn it on. I turn it on and the plate current meter starts swinging back and forth! I turn it off and here I am writing to our group hoping that someone can help me figure this out because I don't even have a clue on what to do next? Mark (N2DMI)
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Drake T4XC; meter protection?
3
Hi to All! I just acquired a T4XC that I've been going thru, with the intent of pairing it with my R4A. I was wondering if it's advisable to install a capacitor or a couple of crossed diodes across the meter? [On other boat anchor rigs, of other brands, I've seen this posted as a suggested modification.] Best regards and 73's! Jim KD0WF
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Drake TR-4CW digital dial
2
#TR4-c
Does anyone know where I can get a Drake TR-4CW digital dial from or something equivalent so I can have a digital readout on my TR-4CW? tnx! Mark
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MN-2000 Repair
11
I'm getting ready to resolder the connections from the new band switch to L2 and L3 in my MN-2000. I'm not positive, but I think the coils are silver plated and am wondering if there's any need to use silver-bearing solder for those connections. I know that for the ceramic terminal blocks in some Tektronix gear, silver-bearing solder is preferred to prevent leaching the silver plating from the plated areas in those blocks but I'm not sure if that's really an issue here. Anyone know what Drake used there? Thanks, Barry - N4BUQ
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TR-4Cw/RIT AC4 Ripple Voltage Measurments
3
I'm working on a TR-4Cw/RIT with AC4 supply that was converted by a previous owner with an ES4-AC upgrade kit. Under normal Rx load with the TR-4 powered on, the +250V line measures 0.5 Vrms ripple. The +750V line measures approximately 80 mV rms ripple with no transmit load. I have no prior documented ripple reference, so I'm curious if these measurements are roughly correct? Paul, W9AC
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