[drakelist] R-4 Series Crystal Alternatives
Good Afternoon All, I'm curious about the experience of others in the matter of utilizing possible ...substitutes for the frequency band oscillator crystals --- be they synthesizers, self-excited analog oscillators, whatever --- in the R-4 series of receivers, to expand the frequency coverage of same... To date, my research has come up with three different articles on the subject, i.e.: --- August 1972 HAM RADIO magazine (Frequency Synthesizer for the Drake R-4; --- May 1981 QST magazine (General-Coverage Reception with the Drake R-4C, and, --- June 2004 April QST magazine (Give that Drake Receiver a New Lease on Life). Of all these, the May '81 QST appears to be about the simplest to construct, even though it uses a pair of the now relatively expensive ECG222 (come NTE-222) dual-gate Mosfet transistors...but how in the world does one attain (and maintain) solid, stable, steady crystal-like oscillation in a relatively simple Colpitts circuit, as high as 40.8-MHz...?! I'm putting out feelers at this time, because in three short days from now, I shall be the proud owner of a pair of Drake Twins here...a Christmas present that I am presenting to myself, just a few days ahead of THE BIG DAY, Hi Hi. Thanks in advance, my vy ~73~ Eddy VE3CUI - VE3XZ
Re: [drakelist] R-4 Series Crystal Alternatives
The FS-4 does inject a bit of noise to the R-4_ receiver as well. So aux crystals are not only cheaper but also quieter. 73 Lee WB6SSW ** See AOL's top rated recipes (http://food.aol.com/top-rated-recipes?NCID=aoltop000304)
Re: [drakelist] R-4 Series Crystal Alternatives
Dan Ringer [EMAIL PROTECTED] made an utterance to the drakelist gang -- EP Swynar wrote: Hi Hunter, Wow...! That price tag of $450.00 is a more than I'm paying for both of the Twins matching p.s. / speaker...! Hi Hi ~73~ Eddy VE3CUI - VE3XZ A few extra crystals will do it - or if you was a lot of segments, build a little box with a rotary switch to hold a lot of crystals. BTW, how does one label the crystal switch positions on an R4x? Dan, K8WV -- Submissions:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe:[EMAIL PROTECTED] - unsubscribe drakelist in body Hopelessly Lost:[EMAIL PROTECTED] - help in body of message Zerobeat Web Page: www.zerobeat.net - sponsored by www.tlchost.net --
Re: [drakelist] R-4 Series labels
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) writes: BTW, how does one label the crystal switch positions on an R4x? Dan, K8WV My daughter (teacher) has a small battery powered label maker that you can change the tape and colors on, and change the sizes of print which will just fit the window. Whether they had a clear so that you could print black on I don't know. With the front panel off, you can use the norm for the correct print mounting angles, but will have to measure from the center point. Personally a very thin pencil line trace of the front panel window worked better. Then pull the front panel Carl Hibbard WD8NHKon an R4 **See AOL's top rated recipes (http://food.aol.com/top-rated-recipes?NCID=aoltop000304)
Re: [drakelist] 2 For 1 Sale
Jim F. [EMAIL PROTECTED] made an utterance to the drakelist gang -- Hi, If you can sell the good one, I may be interested in the one with the bad meter. Jim / W1FMR --- BSugarberg [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: BSugarberg [EMAIL PROTECTED] made an utterance to the drakelist gang -- Hello, I have the following for sale: Drake W-4 Wattmeter - Works good, looks good. Drake WV-4 Wattmeter - Meter needle stuck about 1/8 above zero, looks good. $95.00 for both + shipping. 73, Bruce WA8TNC -- Submissions:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe:[EMAIL PROTECTED] - unsubscribe drakelist in body Hopelessly Lost:[EMAIL PROTECTED] - help in body of message Zerobeat Web Page: www.zerobeat.net - sponsored by www.tlchost.net -- -- Submissions:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe:[EMAIL PROTECTED] - unsubscribe drakelist in body Hopelessly Lost:[EMAIL PROTECTED] - help in body of message Zerobeat Web Page: www.zerobeat.net - sponsored by www.tlchost.net --
Re: [drakelist] R-4 Series Crystal Alternatives
Jim Shorney [EMAIL PROTECTED] made an utterance to the drakelist gang -- On Wed, 19 Dec 2007 18:37:37 -0500, Dan Ringer wrote: BTW, how does one label the crystal switch positions on an R4x? I used a borrowed (from work) Brother P-Touch labeler with black-on-clear tape. With careful font style selection, the type looks quite good in small size. The labels were then trimmed small enough to be applied through the window in the panel with tweezers. The blank Normal position hosts a label with my callsign. 73 -Jim -- Jim Shorney --.--Put complaints in this box jshorney (at) inebraska.com Ham Radio NU0C Lincoln, NE, USA EN10ps http://incolor.inetnebr.com/jshorney/ -- Submissions:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe:[EMAIL PROTECTED] - unsubscribe drakelist in body Hopelessly Lost:[EMAIL PROTECTED] - help in body of message Zerobeat Web Page: www.zerobeat.net - sponsored by www.tlchost.net --
Re: [drakelist] R-4 Series labels
Gary Poland [EMAIL PROTECTED] made an utterance to the drakelist gang -- Dan, I have always used a sharp lead pencil to mark the auxilary crystal positions. 73, Gary W8PU http://home.cinci.rr.com/w8pu -- Submissions:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe:[EMAIL PROTECTED] - unsubscribe drakelist in body Hopelessly Lost:[EMAIL PROTECTED] - help in body of message Zerobeat Web Page: www.zerobeat.net - sponsored by www.tlchost.net --
[drakelist] SPR-3 audio
Steve Aronson [EMAIL PROTECTED] made an utterance to the drakelist gang -- I have an SPR-3 which has lost its audio and the S meter sits on 0. Any hints, tricks, tips etc on where to start troubleshooting this? 73 Steve -- Submissions:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe:[EMAIL PROTECTED] - unsubscribe drakelist in body Hopelessly Lost:[EMAIL PROTECTED] - help in body of message Zerobeat Web Page: www.zerobeat.net - sponsored by www.tlchost.net --
Re: [drakelist] R-4 Series Crystal Alternatives
Dan Ringer [EMAIL PROTECTED] made an utterance to the drakelist gang -- Jim Shorney wrote: Jim Shorney [EMAIL PROTECTED] made an utterance to the drakelist gang -- On Wed, 19 Dec 2007 18:37:37 -0500, Dan Ringer wrote: BTW, how does one label the crystal switch positions on an R4x? I used a borrowed (from work) Brother P-Touch labeler with black-on-clear tape. With careful font style selection, the type looks quite good in small size. The labels were then trimmed small enough to be applied through the window in the panel with tweezers. The blank Normal position hosts a label with my callsign. 73 -Jim Thanks to all for the responses. I really don't want to take the front panel off, because of the well known Mushroom Effect. (A variation of the philosophical proposition that no good deed goes unpunished, and the engineering axiom of if it ain't broke, don't fix it). Ok, it's not THAT hard, but . . . Since I have a P-Touch labeler, I'll try it - if I can get the [EMAIL PROTECTED] backing off the tape. Dan, K8WV -- Submissions:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe:[EMAIL PROTECTED] - unsubscribe drakelist in body Hopelessly Lost:[EMAIL PROTECTED] - help in body of message Zerobeat Web Page: www.zerobeat.net - sponsored by www.tlchost.net --
Re: [drakelist] R-4 Series Crystal Alternatives
Jim Pruitt [EMAIL PROTECTED] made an utterance to the drakelist gang -- Hello Eddy. I have built 2 of the Steve Hageman Give that Drake Receiver a New Lease on Life ( http://www.arrl.org/qst/2004/06/hageman.pdf ) projects from the June 2004 issue of QST and troubleshooting info at http://www.geocities.com/hagtronics/r4.html and more troubleshooting info at N0SS site at http://www.n0ss.net/drake_het_osc_xtal_elim_notes.pdf off of his page at http://www.n0ss.net/index_general.html . Tom has an Excel spreadsheet bill of materials at http://www.n0ss.net/drake_xtal_elim_proj_parts_list.xls but it has not been updated since 2005. The Hageman FS4 clone works well and looks good. The cost is a bit high (but what DIY projects are not more expensive than commercial products these days( (I think mine cost in the neighborhood of $150 with all new parts and a pc board from Fred at FAR Circuits) and I was not that impressed with some of the methods used in the design but it is still a good item and does the job very well. The part that I did not like was that the segments were 500khz segments (starting at 12.6mhz for 160 meters). Why does that matter since most band segments tuned are 500khz, you ask. I am in MARS and some of the frequencies fall close to the IF area where Drake recommends using crystals that start in the middle of the band segment (when using the T4X series and transceiving). This is mostly a non issue now, since MARS outlawed older amateur gear on their frequencies. Other than that the Hageman FS4 clone is ok. It does look nice in the MS4 enclosure with the vinyl overlays that Tom Hammond, N0SS had made that resemble the face of the FS4. Tom also had ovelays made for a Hammond enclosure for those that did not want to put it in a MS4. I also looked very hard at the project at http://www.jimcom.net/elehobby/r4cdds/index.html which uses an Analog Devices AD9850 DDS chip. The web page is in Japanese (I do not read or speak Japanese) but the schematic is viewable and the code for the Pic 16F84 is there. There are other Analog Devices chips that would probably work better like the DDS_Controllers group project that uses a AD9912 (I think) DDS chip. You can also cheat and use a signal generator to replace the FS4 (expensive waste of test gear) or use a vfo if you have one that covers those ranges that you need. The DDS signal generators that use the AD9850 series are probably the easiest and cheapest to come by as there were many scattered across the web. I personally do not like having to buy a bunch of crystals since International Crystal is harder to deal with these days and Jan Crystals web page is hard to use. I guess Bomar is still in business (correct me if I am wrong). It is getting harder to buy crystals from crystal manufacturers (at least at a reasonable price) because the mass production market has moved to cpu clock crystals. The Italian outfit that is making a DDS synthesizer for the Drake twins makes a good product from what I have gathered on this list but that price is way out of my budget. If you are inclined to make one of the DDS sythesizers you might look at the NJQRP DDS daughtercard at http://www.amqrp.org/kits/dds60/ . It uses a AD9851 which is not included with the kit but may still be available directly from Analog Devices as a free sample (they are really good about samples of current production chips but samples are not available for chips that are at the end of their production life). Trev (now K6ESE) had a DDS pc board available on the QRP-L group for a while that used an Atmel AT89S8252 cpu. That project is written up at http://www.k6ese.com/DDS_Project.htm but is no longer available but the schematic as well as the source code are available on his site. There are many many other web sites that have a AD9850-51-54 series DDS synthesizer project outlined as well as some newer ones like the DDS_Controller Yahoo group. Craig Johnson, AA0ZZ, and the group hanging out at the DDS-VFO Yahoo group and are a great bunch of guys. Craig made the IQ-Pro DDS project for NJQRP or AMQrp group and now are working on a better version. Craig's homepage is at http://home.comcast.net/~aa0zz/aa0zz-main.html so you might look at that. I do not know if the above helps or just muddies the waters but I hope that it shows you that there are other alternatives to the FS4. Good luck. Jim Pruitt - Original Message - From: EP Swynar To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2007 9:33 AM Subject: [drakelist] R-4 Series Crystal Alternatives Good Afternoon All, I'm curious about the experience of others in the matter of utilizing possible ...substitutes for the frequency band oscillator crystals --- be they synthesizers, self-excited analog oscillators, whatever --- in the R-4 series of receivers, to expand the frequency coverage of same... To date, my research has come up with three
[drakelist] RE: SPR-3 audio...now SPR-4 audio
Steve Aronson [EMAIL PROTECTED] made an utterance to the drakelist gang -- Steve Aronson wrote: I have an SPR-3 which has lost its audio and the S meter sits on 0. Any hints, tricks, tips etc on where to start troubleshooting this? I don't normally reply to my own posts, but it's an SPR-4, sorry for the typo. 73 Steve -- Submissions:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe:[EMAIL PROTECTED] - unsubscribe drakelist in body Hopelessly Lost:[EMAIL PROTECTED] - help in body of message Zerobeat Web Page: www.zerobeat.net - sponsored by www.tlchost.net --
