"jimg" wrote in message
...
any opinions about which to buy for dx...
a 1992 drake r8 or a 2004 icom r-75 w dsp but without kiwa mods.

thnx
jimg
Oregon
USA

Depends on what kind of listening you want to do. If you want to do serious
DX'ing, I'd recommend the R-75. I also recommend the R-75 for any kind of
utility or ham listening. The R-75 is not a bad receiver for program
listening, but it is not ideal. The stock unmodified am sync is not
effective. The disadvantage being the receiver doesn't give you the
capability to minimize distortion due to signal fade. A simple and
inexpensive and reversible mod can be done on the receiver to greatly
improve that problem. The R8 has a sync detector that works well, but it
does not do as much as the improved ssb selectable am sync on the R8b. The
over all audio quality of an unmodified R-75 is not as good as the R8. The
R8 series is well known for having great audio. Again, you can do a simple
mod on the R-75 to spruce up the audio quality.

I've used both the R8 and the R-75. I've found that the R-75s performance
using ecss in ssb mode in combination with the Icom twin PBT made it the
better receiver for dealing with very weak and messy signals. Using the
same antenna set up, I also found the R-75 to be the more sensative radio in
practic, regardless of how close the written performance specs are on both
the the radiosradios. I'd choose the R-75 over the R8 any day for DX'ing or
utility.

I have a modified R-75 with both the Kiwa sync mod and the audio mod. I use
it with an external speaker too. With those mods and en external speaker, I
can honestly say that it is right up there now with the R8 for program
listening.

In short with just two simple mods and an external speaker the R-75, can do
what the R8 can do, but the R8 cant do what the R-75 can do in the way of
ssb DX'ing and utility.

Michael