Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
#11
|
|||
|
|||
Drake R8B compared to Icom R71A (with mods)
D Peter Maus wrote: dxAce wrote: D Peter Maus wrote: dxAce wrote: D Peter Maus wrote: dxAce wrote: D Peter Maus wrote: denny wrote: Anyone have any thoughts or experience with either the Drake R8B compared to the Icom R71A (with mods), which do you think would be the better receiver? R71A was the benchmark for many years. It was the standard receiver used by three-letter agencies for monitoring. It even found its way into the military. Sensitivity is good. Selectivity can be exceptional, and when working crowded bands for a contact deep in the noise, there are few that are it's rival. In stock form. For hobbyists, not so hot. Audio is poor, and like most rigs built for professional users, it really doesn't deliver it's best performance without a superb antenna. Don't misunderstand...most any antenna will get you going, and performance will be very good. But to get the best out of R-71, you really need as professional an antenna and transmission system as the agenicies for which it was built. That said, you can still find an array of filters for it, ceramic, crystal and mechanical. Ergonomics are reasonably good, with most every function on its own switch. And, in the hands of someone who knows what they're doing, it's quite the cannon. Even on a random wire. R-71 does not have a few of the more luxurient features that some in the hobby consider essential, today. Drake R8B was built more in line with today's hobbycraft users' needs. Again, don't get me wrong...it's a very high performance receiver....but it's not intended for the kind of installation you'd encounter on a hidden island where men-in-black are listening to racks of receivers for the clandestine, untoward, and subversive. R8B has a cleaner layout than R-71, with much more luxurient features, ear pleasing audio, and ergonomics more in line with the needs of a less military user. Side by side, the Drake will be more pleasant to operate for long periods of time than R-71. And on simpler antennae will produce the same or better results. I had an R71 for many years, and still miss it, today. And R8B wasn't around when I bought mine. But, if I were looking for a heavy hitting receiver, today, and those were my choices, I'd probably have more inclined toward R8B. Widening the field abit, I'd recommend looking also at AOR's AR-7030+, Palstar's R30 (and its variants), Ten-Tec's RX-320D, RX-350, RX-340, and if you can find them, Lowe's HF-150, HF-225, and HF-250. Though HF-150 isn't in quite the same class as the others. Basic, small...but its lack of features is more than offset by it's potent performance. I once owned a Yaesu FRG-7700 from Gilfer. What is interesting is that when I had some serious noise issues here, a fellow from our now defunct FCC Monitoring station south of here showed up with what I guess would be their 'covert' vehicle, and it had a FRG-7700 in kind of a rack on the passenger side. Yeah....long ago, in a life far, far away, there was an FCC monitor in my neighborhood. 11 meters was the Wild West in those days, and he had a cluster of receivers in a rack in his panel truck. Really exciting stuff for a Jr High Schooler back then. I've not worked FRG-7700. How did it handle compared to your benchmark rigs? It served me well and then I bought a Drake R7 in 1984. I used them both for a few years, then I got the Kenwood R-5000 and sold the Yaesu. I had some better filters installed in the '7700 from Gilfer, and I certainly heard a lot of stations on it. I guess what got me back into the hobby back in '82 or so was the digital readout. That was certainly ground breaking territory, back then. And a lot of kids I knew were drawn to the hobby because of it. I was still using a Hammarlund BC-794 Super Pro that I'd aligned within an inch of its life. Finding frequencies, even with the analog dials, was a snap. Still, it turned off a lot of my friends, who were determined to go digital. Of course, that was when the noise floor was low, and the bands were full of stations like WNYW. And BBC/WS was still largely an entertainment medium. So, that variable IF served me very well with some fine audio. Except for the Hammar, and a couple of Nationals that I'm putting up for sale, everything else I've got has a digital readout. Digital readouts aren't as fun as spinning the analog dials. But the rigs today are a whole lot easier to work. Yeah, that and timer controlled taping. It was a dream come true. No kidding. An entirely new level of monitoring was possible. Which led me into providing audio of international broadcasts for News. I did that sort of thing during the *first* Gulf war and then again during the *second* and now ongoing problem. Actually made a few bucks. Doubt that will ever happen again. Plug in the freq. and either they were there or not, what fun! Yep. And you could set up and trap stations as they were coming on. No more hunting for one station while keepng an ear on another. Miss nothing. I bought a Switchcraft router out of a stereo store, and set up my shack with several reel recorders. If something interesting broke, I could route to a waiting recorder with the punch of a couple of buttons, without disturbing what was being recorded elsewhere. |
#12
|
|||
|
|||
Drake R8B compared to Icom R71A (with mods)
On Mar 30, 2:08 pm, RHF wrote:
On Mar 30, 1:45 pm, wrote: On Mar 30, 8:18 am, D Peter Maus wrote: denny wrote: Anyone have any thoughts or experience with either the Drake R8B compared to the Icom R71A (with mods), which do you think would be the better receiver? R71A was the benchmark for many years. It was the standard receiver used by three-letter agencies for monitoring. It even found its way into the military. Sensitivity is good. Selectivity can be exceptional, and when working crowded bands for a contact deep in the noise, there are few that are it's rival. In stock form. For hobbyists, not so hot. Audio is poor, and like most rigs built for professional users, it really doesn't deliver it's best performance without a superb antenna. Don't misunderstand...most any antenna will get you going, and performance will be very good. But to get the best out of R-71, you really need as professional an antenna and transmission system as the agenicies for which it was built. That said, you can still find an array of filters for it, ceramic, crystal and mechanical. Ergonomics are reasonably good, with most every function on its own switch. And, in the hands of someone who knows what they're doing, it's quite the cannon. Even on a random wire. R-71 does not have a few of the more luxurient features that some in the hobby consider essential, today. Drake R8B was built more in line with today's hobbycraft users' needs. Again, don't get me wrong...it's a very high performance receiver....but it's not intended for the kind of installation you'd encounter on a hidden island where men-in-black are listening to racks of receivers for the clandestine, untoward, and subversive. R8B has a cleaner layout than R-71, with much more luxurient features, ear pleasing audio, and ergonomics more in line with the needs of a less military user. Side by side, the Drake will be more pleasant to operate for long periods of time than R-71. And on simpler antennae will produce the same or better results. I had an R71 for many years, and still miss it, today. And R8B wasn't around when I bought mine. But, if I were looking for a heavy hitting receiver, today, and those were my choices, I'd probably have more inclined toward R8B. Widening the field abit, I'd recommend looking also at AOR's AR-7030+, Palstar's R30 (and its variants), Ten-Tec's RX-320D, RX-350, RX-340, and if you can find them, Lowe's HF-150, HF-225, and HF-250. Though HF-150 isn't in quite the same class as the others. Basic, small...but its lack of features is more than offset by it's potent performance. I've seen some homebrew programming for the R8B. I wouldn't exactly call it a friendly interface. It's funny that the AR7030+ was shown to be canceled in Japan via a post to this forum, but the news never really made it elsewhere. Anyway, I'd take a 7030+ over a used R8B, but I can handle menus. Pro gear nearly always chooses high dynamic range over sensitivity. The assumption is you will have serious iron on the front end or a preamp. I got in the mood to do some antenna building a week ago and increased the size of my "indoor" loop for my Wellbrook ALA100 to 20ft (6ft x 4ft; eating up a bit of a spare room.) It now forces a few more local MW station to turn on the attenuator in the old 7030, but no overload problems. I've use 67ft of wire on the ALA100 when in the boonies, but I can't vouch for how the radio would work in an urban area, i.e. MW overload. However, it was just silly how well the set up could pick up NDBs in the daylight. I was in Nevada and picking up Canadian beacons. - There really should be more emphasis - on antennas versus the radio. M...Sushi - Ditto That ! But a very good Shortwave Radio / Receiver can sit-on a Desk-Top; and with few exceptions Real Antennas take up a lot of Real Estate and can cost some Big Bucks themselves to put into the Air. ~ RHF Back to the Drake, if you have button mania, wouldn't an older R8A (crappy sync) and an external synchro demod be another option? I read about Sherwood's being hooked up to the R8. I never heard or saw this in the flesh.- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - Ah, but the Wellbrook ALA 100 and a roll your own loop is pretty compact. Granted with the weak dollar, a Wellbrook ALA 100 costs more than some radios. To this day the Bushies claim they don't have a weak dollar policy. Here is the latest from the WSJ: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1205...googlenews_wsj This really sucks because much shortwave gear is imported, and there are no domestic substitutes. Here is an example where the loop worked really well. A few weeks ago I was checking out the local TIStations and heard a bible thumper mixing with one. I'm not much for logging, but I wrote this one down. The TIS was on 1620. I rotated the loop to null the local TIS and got KSMH out of Sacto. This is from the south SF Bay. http://www.ihradio.org/ You don't need a Kiwa to get a deep null. The ALA 100 does just fine. I have a small 2ft on a side loop I use for DFIng. Try nulling with a long wire. Ain't gonna happen. |
#13
|
|||
|
|||
Drake R8B compared to Icom R71A (with mods)
Unrevealed Source wrote:
"D Peter Maus" wrote in message ... Widening the field abit, I'd recommend looking also at AOR's AR-7030+, Palstar's R30 (and its variants), Ten-Tec's RX-320D, RX-350, RX-340, and if you can find them, Lowe's HF-150, HF-225, and HF-250. Though HF-150 isn't in quite the same class as the others. Basic, small...but its lack of features is more than offset by it's potent performance. I notice you didn't include the R-75 in that list. How come? Because I wasn't thinking about it at the time. |
#14
|
|||
|
|||
Drake R8B compared to Icom R71A (with mods)
D Peter Maus wrote:
Unrevealed Source wrote: "D Peter Maus" wrote in message ... Widening the field abit, I'd recommend looking also at AOR's AR-7030+, Palstar's R30 (and its variants), Ten-Tec's RX-320D, RX-350, RX-340, and if you can find them, Lowe's HF-150, HF-225, and HF-250. Though HF-150 isn't in quite the same class as the others. Basic, small...but its lack of features is more than offset by it's potent performance. I notice you didn't include the R-75 in that list. How come? Because I wasn't thinking about it at the time. I don't recommend the HF-150; you can't get it serviced. -- Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com |
#15
|
|||
|
|||
Drake R8B compared to Icom R71A (with mods)
The R8B is a more modern receiver with an excellent sync detector. BTW
Denny there is an R8A and R8B available on Ebay now. -- Brian Denley http://home.comcast.net/~b.denley/index.html "denny" wrote in message ... Anyone have any thoughts or experience with either the Drake R8B compared to the Icom R71A (with mods), which do you think would be the better receiver? |
#16
|
|||
|
|||
Drake R8B compared to Icom R71A (with mods)
The HF-150 isn't too bad to repair. About the only things that go wrong are
a blown SL-6440 1st mixer, a bad 100uF cap at the output of the 8V regulator that causes the audio to howl, and a 4569 programmable divider chip on the front panel board that sometimes goes bad, causing the BFO injection frequency to be outside of the I.F. passband. Actually, these problems occur in most of the Lowe units, from time to time. Every once in a while, I will repair them for a friend. Pete "friendlyneighborhooddisease" wrote in message .. . D Peter Maus wrote: Unrevealed Source wrote: "D Peter Maus" wrote in message ... Widening the field abit, I'd recommend looking also at AOR's AR-7030+, Palstar's R30 (and its variants), Ten-Tec's RX-320D, RX-350, RX-340, and if you can find them, Lowe's HF-150, HF-225, and HF-250. Though HF-150 isn't in quite the same class as the others. Basic, small...but its lack of features is more than offset by it's potent performance. I notice you didn't include the R-75 in that list. How come? Because I wasn't thinking about it at the time. I don't recommend the HF-150; you can't get it serviced. -- Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com |
Reply |
|
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Forum | |||
FA: ICOM R71A | Shortwave | |||
FS: Icom R71A Mint or Trade Drake R8 + Cash | Shortwave | |||
FS: Icom R71A Mint or Trade Drake R8 + Cash | Swap | |||
F/S Icom R71A | Swap | |||
F/S Icom R71A | CB |