Chitika: Drake 2B

Showing posts with label Drake 2B. Show all posts

This is so great. I saw pictures of Dale's receiver a few years ago, but somehow missed the video. I am the proud owner of a W4OP-built Barebones Superhet. And, of course, of a Drake 2B (mine has tubes!)

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After using the Arduino DDS as a crystal substitute with my 1982 Barebones Superhet recevier (scroll down), I moved back two more decades and used the DDS as a crystal substitute to put my (early '60s) Drake 2B on the 12 meter band. This was a hack in which I actually used a hack saw -- I used it to cut open the container holding a crystal so that I could make a socket that would carry the signal from the Arduino DDS into the Drake 2B.

This video is a bit repetitive, but it stated out at two different videos. I just put them together. The last part shows the actual crystal socket hack.

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I received a very nice message from Preston Douglas. Conveniently, he is an attorney, and I have asked him to stand ready to defend me in court should I ever be accused of manipulating the markets for Drake 2-Bs (and perhaps the market for SSDRAs).

Can any out there help Preston with his SX-110 455 kc IF can?

May 20 at 3:38 PM

Hi Bill,

I enjoyed #160, even though I heard those talks, live at FDIM.

I thought you'd be amused by what I overheard in the flea market on Saturday in Dayton. I was looking at a Drake 2B and Q multiplier being offered by a lady who said they were her father's. They looked to be in pretty clean shape, though of course there was no way to know what was going on under the hood. She was asking $200 for both, and said she was open to reasonable offers. Now, I already have a 2B and haven't found any need for the Q multiplier. And I had flown out to Dayton from NY, so would have had to ship the pair of boxes home--probably should have bought them anyway and sent them home by UPS for that kind of money.

Anyway, there were two other guys looking at the 2B. One said to the other that these were among the best receivers of the tube era, but that the prices had become inflated by this guy who does the Soldersmoke podcasts talking up the virtues of the 2B. Couldn't help smiling at that.

As to the Hallicrafters SX-110 on the repair bench. Well, I worked out a deal with a professional tech guy to trade him my non-working HP 8640b sig gen for some bench time on the 110. He found that the first IF transformer that I was having so much trouble aligning was non-working. He had no replacement, so he bypassed the whole transformer with a cap to get signal to the next stage. This is, of course, not a satisfactory solution. And nobody has that IF can to sell. I did read on another radio repair guy's web site that he, too, usually stops working on a set with a bad IF can because repair is so labor intensive.

Frankly, I don't accept that. I mean what's inside there? A couple of coils and some open silvered mica leafs. So, I plan to remove the can, open it, and fix it. According to the Internet, the built-in caps on these cans become defective and need replacement by modern capacitors. Or, maybe a wire is broken off. Before I do anything, I am going to see if that transformer is really unable to peak at 455. Anyway, maybe I'll get some time to mess with this radio over the holiday weekend.

One of the guys (or was it you?) recently said he builds 'em, makes a few contacts to prove they work, and then puts them on a shelf. Then he builds another one. It's like that sometimes.

PRESTON DOUGLAS

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

For the first time in years I got on the air on New Year's eve. I fired up the HT-37 and Drake 2-B on 20 meters last night right at 0001 UTC (well, with these rigs I should say GMT!). There was a moment of stress when, as I was trying to adjust the key, the whole thing fell apart and the little ball bearings spilled out. Yikes! It was as if the radio gods were trying to tell me something. It took me a few minutes to re-assemble my straight key, then I called CQ. The HT-37 puts out a lot more power than I normally emit, and it caused the Carbon Monoxide detector to go off, sparking a minor panic among family members. (See, this never happens with QRP!) With that resolved I had nice QSOs with K5KFK in Texas, W6VNR in California, and N1WPU in Maine. This morning I worked WA0ZDE in Missouri. The old HT-37 was drifting a bit, but Rick said he kind of liked that. (I put a muffin fan on top of the transmitter -- that should settle it down a bit). By the way, my key is a bit unusual: it is just a cheapo key, but I have it mounted on the base from a Vibroplex bug. I never mastered the Vibroplex, and ended up giving the bug parts to HI8G in Santo Domingo -- Gustavo planned on using them to fix another bug that had been given to him years before by Fred Laun (K3ZO).

Rick, WA0ZDE ( who I talked to on 20 this morning) sent me a VERY SKN photo collage (see below). I see that Rick also tends to hold onto his gear for a long time.

HNY to all! GL in 14. 73!

Years ago I bought a Barebones Superhet from Dale Parfitt on E-bay. Several years after that, having forgotten who I bought it from, I was asking questions about how to get it working on 17 meters. Dale jumped in with some very helpful e-mails. It took us both a while to realize that I was working on the receiver that he had built. Dale is active in a really wide range of ham radio activities, everything from QRP to EME. Check out his homebrew projects here (I really like his Solid State Drake 2-B!) http://www.parelectronics.com/par-homebrew-projects.php
And his vintage projects here: http://www.parelectronics.com/vintage-radio-restoration.php
And here's what Dale has been doing with the Moon (that's his 15 foot dish in the picture):

Hi Bill,

I thought of you today when I won a Bare Bones Barbados RX on eBay for $5. I am going to team it with a DDS VFO and a matching TX.Some parts are apparently missing, but i have a huge junk box and also know how to order from Mouser should the junk box fail me.

Right now I am putting my solid state 650W 1296MHz EME amp , Power Supply, meters etc. in its waterproof cabinet so I can mount it right at the dish and not incur any feedline losses.

1296 is probably the best EME band. Power is getting easier and easier to acquire (although solid state is around $5/watt), dishes are fairly easy to acquire or build and perhaps most importantly, we all use circular polarity feeds with no relays/hybrids. Activity weekend can sound like 20M, with a number of stations just ragchewing on CW and SSB.

73,

Dale W4OP
for PAR Electronics, Inc.
http://www.parelectronics.com

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

I like this telescope. The owner built it in 7th grade and is still using it at age 70. I'm still using the Drake 2-B that I bought with newspaper route money, so understand the sentiments.

http://makezine.com/2013/07/29/through-a-diy-telescope-brightly/

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Bill and Soldersmoke readers,

One of the earliest and still surviving Drake 2Bs is owned by Paul Brock (K4MSG) of Hamilton, Virginia.

Paul is very much into Boat Anchor Ownership and Restoration.

If you are interested, look at his write-up titled “The Magic of Boatanchors” http://www.k4lrg.org/Projects/Magic_of_Boatanchors/index.html

K4MSG’s Drake 2B Receiver s/n 2052

In my perspective, this receiver is still an absolute “Keeper.”

If anyone has a Drake 2B older than Paul’s, we’d love to see it.

We have all surmised that the first 2B was serial number 2000, from the first production run back in April 1961.

Paul’s radio could have easily been one of the first receivers to hit the market.

Interesting sidebar; The early 2B and 2As do not have the red scale log scale adjustor button.

I remember these when they first hit the market. They seemed so small compared to the Hammarlund, Hallicrafters and National triple conversion receivers from the same era.

Most Old Timers felt they were not going to get their monies worth with a tiny receiver sitting next to their big 60 to 100 Lb. transmitter.

In 1962, this was a very modern radio both in style and performance. Coupled with the Q-Multiplier/Speaker you had a superb receiver which worked extremely well on C.W., A.M. and S.S.B.

My first experience with the Drake 2 B came at Skyview Radio Club near the Pittsburgh, Pa area back in 1965.