Ron Hardin wrote:

The buttons on my Drake R8B haven't worked great
ever, but they've gotten almost nonfunctional now
(after almost 20 years), and I need them twice a
year to change between Daylight and Standard time.

A push has no effect. It used to have no
consistent effect but would eventually work.

Any fix for this? Should I read up on serial
control of the receiver?

I don't know about the Drake specifically, but I've had good results
disassembling and cleaning contact switches in such things as other
radios and remote controls.

The switch contacts are usually traces on a circuit board and a carbon
coated button completes the circuit. A q-tip and some isoproypol
alcohol restores them to normal working order. However, sometimes they
are just worn out.

I wouldn't open up the Drake unless I had expirence doing other sorts of
similiar repairs, though.