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.