Hi all, my name is Ted (KQ4MZ) and I just came into posession of a
Drake R4-C receiver which I intend to build a Drake station from. For
now I just plan to use this as an extra receiver. My question is how
can I connect a coax to the antenna jack on the back of the receiver? I
have never owned any older tube gear aside from old swl radios and have
never seen a phono plug type jack for an antenna. Can I solder the
center conductor of the coax to the pin on a male phono plug and the
braid to the body of the plug? Any help would be most appreciated. I
want to be able to connect the Drake into an antenna switch that I have
all my other rigs connected to . Thanks again for any and all
thoughts.


Ted---KQ4MZ

"tjbitt" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi all, my name is Ted (KQ4MZ) and I just came into
posession of a
Drake R4-C receiver which I intend to build a Drake
station from. For
now I just plan to use this as an extra receiver. My
question is how
can I connect a coax to the antenna jack on the back of
the receiver? I
have never owned any older tube gear aside from old swl
radios and have
never seen a phono plug type jack for an antenna. Can I
solder the
center conductor of the coax to the pin on a male phono
plug and the
braid to the body of the plug? Any help would be most
appreciated. I
want to be able to connect the Drake into an antenna
switch that I have
all my other rigs connected to . Thanks again for any and
all
thoughts.


Ted---KQ4MZ

Pomona Plugs and others make adaptors to go from male or
female phone or RCA plugs to BNC or F connectors. The BNC
would probably be the best choice. Since the receiver
antenna connection will probably be going to a TR switch of
some sort you will need a cable with a BNC on the receiver
side and whatever plug the TR switch takes on the other
side. I would use BNC on both sides with another adaptor on
the switch side since you can get adaptors for BNC to nearly
anything. BNCs can be gotten with constant impedance at
either 50 Ohms or 75 Ohms.
Surprizingly, RCA conectors are pretty good at RF, in
fact, that is what they were originally designed for, they
just are not mechanically strong.


--
---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA

On Mon, 20 Nov 2006 03:48:19 GMT, "Richard Knoppow"
wrote:

Pomona Plugs and others make adaptors to go from male or
female phone or RCA plugs to BNC or F connectors.

He said phono plug, not phone plug. They're two different beasts.

You can also get PL-259 to phono adapters, which might be a better solution than
using BNC.

-- Larry

"pltrgyst" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 20 Nov 2006 03:48:19 GMT, "Richard Knoppow"

wrote:

Pomona Plugs and others make adaptors to go from male
or
female phone or RCA plugs to BNC or F connectors.

He said phono plug, not phone plug. They're two different
beasts.

You can also get PL-259 to phono adapters, which might be
a better solution than
using BNC.

-- Larry

Typing error, calling it an RCA plug should have been the
clue. The info above stands for phono plugs, all sorts of
adaptors are available for them. Even Radio Shack has some.
I mentioned the BNC because it is small and less likely
than a PL-259 to stress the RCA jack its connected to. Since
this is for a receiver antenna the cable can be of a light
weight type. The other end can have a PL-259 or whatever is
desired on it.


--
---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA

Richard Knoppow wrote:
Surprizingly, RCA conectors are pretty good at RF, in
fact, that is what they were originally designed for, they
just are not mechanically strong.

RCA connectors were designed to be cheap. Yes, they were intended for
internal connections (both RF and audio) in radio/phonograph consoles in
the thirties, but that's not to say they are constant impedance in any way.

If you see an RCA connector on an antenna input, you can _probably_ assume
it wants to see a high-impedance longwire antenna. You may get better
results from a 50 ohm source with some matching. Then again, maybe not.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

"Scott Dorsey" wrote in message
...
.

If you see an RCA connector on an antenna input, you can _probably_ assume
it wants to see a high-impedance longwire antenna. You may get better
results from a 50 ohm source with some matching. Then again, maybe not.
--scott

Never saw this before. Drake, Collins and Heathkit all used the RCA phono
socket for low impedance antennas. The recievers that are 600 Ohms or so
used a terminal strip. There may be exceptions, but that's what they are-
exceptions.

Dale W4OP

On 11/20/06 2:15 PM, in article fOp8h.3560$9e.927@trnddc02, "Dale Parfitt"
wrote:


"Scott Dorsey" wrote in message
...
.

If you see an RCA connector on an antenna input, you can _probably_ assume
it wants to see a high-impedance longwire antenna. You may get better
results from a 50 ohm source with some matching. Then again, maybe not.
--scott

Never saw this before. Drake, Collins and Heathkit all used the RCA phono
socket for low impedance antennas. The recievers that are 600 Ohms or so
used a terminal strip. There may be exceptions, but that's what they are-
exceptions.

Dale W4OP



It appears the unit may have trouble as a receiver.

According to the record on BAMA an R4-C is a "remote VFO."

Don

"Don Bowey" wrote in message
...
On 11/20/06 2:15 PM, in article fOp8h.3560$9e.927@trnddc02, "Dale Parfitt"
wrote:

"Scott Dorsey" wrote in message
...
.

If you see an RCA connector on an antenna input, you can _probably_
assume
it wants to see a high-impedance longwire antenna. You may get better
results from a 50 ohm source with some matching. Then again, maybe not.
--scott

Never saw this before. Drake, Collins and Heathkit all used the RCA phono
socket for low impedance antennas. The recievers that are 600 Ohms or so
used a terminal strip. There may be exceptions, but that's what they are-
exceptions.

Dale W4OP


It appears the unit may have trouble as a receiver.

According to the record on BAMA an R4-C is a "remote VFO."

Don


NOPE, typo at BAMA (someone left out a 'V').

The Drake RV-4C is the external VFO; the Drake R-4C is the HF receiver.

gb

"Scott Dorsey" wrote in message
...
Richard Knoppow wrote:
Surprizingly, RCA conectors are pretty good at RF, in
fact, that is what they were originally designed for, they
just are not mechanically strong.

RCA connectors were designed to be cheap. Yes, they were intended for
internal connections (both RF and audio) in radio/phonograph consoles in
the thirties, but that's not to say they are constant impedance in any
way.

If you see an RCA connector on an antenna input, you can _probably_ assume
it wants to see a high-impedance longwire antenna. You may get better
results from a 50 ohm source with some matching. Then again, maybe not.
--scott


Scott -

Where is the empirical or engineering data to support this conclusion?

Collins did do the frequency sweeps -- and it out performed many of the
alternatives at that time --
if it didn't Art Collins would have never used the connector (BNC was
available at the time).

w9gb

w9gb wrote:
"Scott Dorsey" wrote in message
...
Richard Knoppow wrote:
Surprizingly, RCA conectors are pretty good at RF, in
fact, that is what they were originally designed for, they
just are not mechanically strong.
RCA connectors were designed to be cheap. Yes, they were intended for
internal connections (both RF and audio) in radio/phonograph consoles in
the thirties, but that's not to say they are constant impedance in any
way.

If you see an RCA connector on an antenna input, you can _probably_ assume
it wants to see a high-impedance longwire antenna. You may get better
results from a 50 ohm source with some matching. Then again, maybe not.
--scott


Scott -

Where is the empirical or engineering data to support this conclusion?

Collins did do the frequency sweeps -- and it out performed many of the
alternatives at that time --
if it didn't Art Collins would have never used the connector (BNC was
available at the time).

w9gb



Say, didn't the Heathkit "lunchbox" AM transceivers use RCA phono
connectors as an antenna conection? Those lunchboxes operated into low
impedance 50 ohm loads all the way up to 148 mcs.

K9FH

--
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