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Telamon · August 11th 06, 09:00 PM posted to rec.radio.shortwave

In article ,
(Geoffrey S. Mendelson) wrote:

Telamon wrote:
Many years ago when I was looking for a better performance SW radio I
was looking at the both Kenwood R-5000 and the Drake R8. The Kenwood is
a good radio but the Drake was better and that's what I bought.

Many years ago could have been 14-15, The R8 was around for a long time.

IMHO the R8 is not as good as the R-5000 due to ergonomics. I like a radio
with knobs that do things, not buttons. It's a matter of taste.

I bought the R8 when it first came out in the early 90's.

The Kenwood ergonomics is (were) better but I liked the Drake receiver
performance better. I think most people like dedicated controls for most
functions that are commonly adjusted during a listening secession.

The Drake came with all the built in filters I wanted, sync detection,
and it seemed to me to be just as sensitive. Overall, I found listening
to the Drake a better experience AM or sideband. I have very rarely
listened to FM repeaters on any SW radio. At the time I bought the R8 I
was into RTTY and weather fax transmissions and the Drake was an
excellent radio for this in conjunction with a Universal decoder. I used
a scope in XY mode on the Universal output to tune it the signals with
the smaller bandwidth filters to get a better signal to noise. It was a
good setup for RTTY and weather fax.

I traded in the R8 for an R8B a few years ago. Performance is about the
same with the exception of the improved sync detection circuitry. The
ergonomics were also improved a little going from R8 to R8B and there
were a few other improvements like more memories. I have never regretted
buying either the Drake R8 or R8B. They are the best SWL radios around.
Listening to the Drake with a good inexpensive bookshelf speaker such as
the Sony¹s I have is a great listening experience. It is a great loss to
the SWL community that Drake discontinued making this radio.

--
Telamon
Ventura, California

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