If you are fortunate enough to have been a ham for some time, then likely you have owned a Drake radio. Maybe it is a Drake 2B Receiver paired with a DX-100 adorning one of your operating positions or perhaps a TR-7. Somehow AI steered my phone to this video. If all you know is an ICOM IC-7300 then you are missing a true ham radio experience.
Some things I never knew about the R L Drake company: During WW II they built the three tube BC-125 radio (likely a regen) and the number of AC-4 power supplies produced is around 84,000. Foreign competition killed R L Drake. Sounds like Collins, Heathkit, Ten Tec, Hallicrafters, National and Hammarlund.
Of note is the R4C receiver that externally looks like the earlier R4, R4A, R4B siblings but under the hood is a different animal. Rob Sherwood NC0B is well known for documenting receiver performance of all the current ham gear.
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He started with improving the R4C with the addition of what is essentially a "roofing filter" (A wider filter in the receive chain to limit the bandwidth of signals passing ahead of the main IF Filter.) Now all the high end non-SDR radios tout a roofing filter.
[Slightly ahead of the curve, the N6QW, KWM-4 SSB/CW transceiver has a roofing filter in the design!]
The R4C has passband tuning with triple conversion to a 50kHz 3rd IF. The R4C works with the T4Xc to provide separate, split or transceiver operations.
As a result of Sherwood's modifications, the R4C at that time soon became the #1 radio in terms of receiver performance. Today it is a Yaesu FTdx101 at the pole position. If you are an ardent CW operator, then this was "the radio". In addition to SSB the R4C has three optional CW filters accessible from the front panel. This is in addition to having 15 crystal positions for adding bands of operation outside of the stock five bands between 80-10M.
Behind that panel are a mere 6 tubes (2X6BA6, 3X6EJ7 and 1X6BE6). The rest is all solid state. This is a far cry from the first 13 tube R4 Receiver. Of note the tubes used are really cheap to replace like about $5 each from Antique Electronic Supply --- so not a large maintenance cost.
Notable that the Drake Engineers chose the 6BA6 as the primary RF Amplifier stage and another 6BA6 in the IF. You would think they might choose some really exotic tube for those tasks. I guess if it works well then why change it?
The Drake Gear commands some hefty pricing on eBay. Most unmolested R4C's begin at around $400 and that is without any extra crystals or the highly prized noise blanker. So, getting one is not cheap and even though unmolested may require some additional $$$ to get it back to factory specifications.
Be wary of any R4C's that say the PTO needs repair. THAT type of repair usually means replacement! There are two concentric dials on the PTO shaft, and they move in unison. One dial face is marked in 100kHz increments and the other in 1kHz. They can be reset manually with a process much akin to what it would take to get a date with Taylor Swift! Not for the faint of heart.
So, while many podcasts and blogs focus entirely on the new stuff, some of the boat anchor stuff is top drawer. If you have a Drake R4C, which is operating properly, you simply enjoy what you hear!
TYGNYB.
73's
Pete N6QW