Drake R8B "Limited Availability"
 

I was looking at the Drake website and I noticed several intriguing
developments. I reported a couple of weeks ago that the R8 speaker was
discontinued.

Now, there is no mention of the Sat. 800 on the website, you cannot buy
an R8B directly from Drake anymore, and the R8B now has only "limited
availability" from Drake dealers.

http://www.rldrake.com/swl/index.html

Is this Drake subtle way of saying that the R8B is riding off into the
sunset in the near future?

Whoops...it looks like you can still buy direct from Drake, but I don't
think you can place an order via the internet anymore.

mike0219116 wrote:
I was looking at the Drake website and I noticed several intriguing
developments. I reported a couple of weeks ago that the R8 speaker
was
discontinued.

Now, there is no mention of the Sat. 800 on the website, you cannot
buy
an R8B directly from Drake anymore, and the R8B now has only "limited
availability" from Drake dealers.

http://www.rldrake.com/swl/index.html

Is this Drake subtle way of saying that the R8B is riding off into
the
sunset in the near future?

I noticed the same thing. I, too, wonder what it means.

Steve

The more I think about it, the more concerned I am about the reference
to the "limited availability" of the R8B on Drake's website. I really
hope this isn't the beginning of the end of Drake receivers. That would
really be depressing.

Steve

Steve: The more I think about it, the more concerned I am about the
reference
to the "limited availability" of the R8B on Drake's website. I really
hope this isn't the beginning of the end of Drake receivers. That would

really be depressing.

mike0219116:

I totally agree. I'm glad I bought one last year considering how
things are starting to look. It's a fantastic radio.

wrote:

The more I think about it, the more concerned I am about the reference
to the "limited availability" of the R8B on Drake's website. I really
hope this isn't the beginning of the end of Drake receivers. That would
really be depressing.

Drake hasn't brought out a new model in quite some time. I doubt that
things are going well for the company. In fact, sales of all tabletops
have been going down while sales of cheap Chinese portables have been
going up. Passport said in their 2005 edition that the Sat 800 (which is
based on the Drake SW8 but made by Tecsun) will be discontinued shortly.
AOR no longer sells tabletops in the US or indeed anywhere else except
the UK. Maybe the end of tabletop makers in the west (including Japan)
will lead to Chinese makers filling the void-Degen for one is seriously
talking about a high end receiver, which would probably be too expensive
for its traditional domestic market. But it's possible that the DXer
market is at its saturation point and that demand for tabletops can be
satisfied by all the used models already out there. I don't think it's
the beginning of the end for shortwave radio in general-like I said
Degen and Tecsun seem to be doing well-but it may be the end of the
traditional DXer portion of SW.


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Universal recently announced that they are again selling the AOR AR7030
Plus which is very good news.

I do not want to get into an argument and I recognize that we all have
our favorites, however, it is my opinion that the AR7030 Plus is
positively the finest short wave radio ever designed and it is
certainly the best model under $2000. If you have or can get the 2005
edition of PASSPORT TO WORLD BAND RADIO, take a look at its
specifications on page 168. They are even better, in some key aspects,
than the "professional" Ten-Tec or Watkins-Johnson which cost far more.
Numbers certainly do not tell all, but you cannot ignore them either.

I hope, however, that the Drake R8B and, especially, the Grundig
Satellit 800 are not discontinued. It would seem to me that, at least
in the case of the Grundig, there is still considerable demand. I do
not understand why Eton does not put some advertsing money into it;
after all, its development costs have been amortized by now so each
sale is pure profit.

Best,

Joe

Joe Analssandrini wrote:
Universal recently announced that they are again selling the AOR
AR7030
Plus which is very good news.

I do not want to get into an argument and I recognize that we all
have
our favorites, however, it is my opinion that the AR7030 Plus is
positively the finest short wave radio ever designed and it is
certainly the best model under $2000. If you have or can get the 2005
edition of PASSPORT TO WORLD BAND RADIO, take a look at its
specifications on page 168. They are even better, in some key
aspects,
than the "professional" Ten-Tec or Watkins-Johnson which cost far
more.
Numbers certainly do not tell all, but you cannot ignore them either.

I hope, however, that the Drake R8B and, especially, the Grundig
Satellit 800 are not discontinued. It would seem to me that, at least
in the case of the Grundig, there is still considerable demand. I do
not understand why Eton does not put some advertsing money into it;
after all, its development costs have been amortized by now so each
sale is pure profit.

Best,

Joe

There's also a more general theme here, in my opinion. If Drake
discontinues the R8B, then there are fewer choices for all of us when
it comes time to buy a new, high quality receiver. In this respect,
it's not just bad for Drake lovers, but for anyone who might one day
have purchased a Drake. I felt the same way when AOR stopped selling
the 7030+ in the US, and am really happy that Universal is selling it
again!

While I don't care for the 800, some folks like it and I'd like Eton to
continue it for them...assuming Eton can't come up with something
better. It should be priced at around $300 though--not a penny more.

Steve

That 2:1 exchange rate for the pound is sure a killer. I got mine
years ago and bitched about the 1.4 or 1.5:1 rate.

In article . com,
"Joe Analssandrini" wrote:

Universal recently announced that they are again selling the AOR AR7030
Plus which is very good news.

I do not want to get into an argument and I recognize that we all have
our favorites, however, it is my opinion that the AR7030 Plus is
positively the finest short wave radio ever designed and it is
certainly the best model under $2000. If you have or can get the 2005
edition of PASSPORT TO WORLD BAND RADIO, take a look at its
specifications on page 168. They are even better, in some key aspects,
than the "professional" Ten-Tec or Watkins-Johnson which cost far more.
Numbers certainly do not tell all, but you cannot ignore them either.

I hope, however, that the Drake R8B and, especially, the Grundig
Satellit 800 are not discontinued. It would seem to me that, at least
in the case of the Grundig, there is still considerable demand. I do
not understand why Eton does not put some advertsing money into it;
after all, its development costs have been amortized by now so each
sale is pure profit.

I like my AOR7030+ and I'm a Drake owner and a Ten-Tec owner.

--
Telamon
Ventura, California

What would be a good "second" shortwave radio? Given the exchange rate,
I'm not in the mood to get a second 7030. I'm not a fan of black box
radios. I guess that leaves a tentec 350 or maybe build an elecraft.

In article .com,
wrote:

What would be a good "second" shortwave radio? Given the exchange
rate, I'm not in the mood to get a second 7030. I'm not a fan of
black box radios. I guess that leaves a tentec 350 or maybe build an
elecraft.

The Ten-Tec I own is a 340 and I can't comment on the 350. The 340
still costs $4K and I don't think you you want to pay that much. It's a
real nice radio but way beyond the diminishing returns factor. The 350
looks like an OK radio but people here have complained about the
performance here and the lack of software updates to address issues
they still have with the unit.

You can't go wrong with a Drake R8B for any SW interest you may have.
The R8B and 7030 have similar sound qualities with bookshelf speakers
in use.

You could get a ICOM R75 if you want to play radio doctor since you
seem to understand radio or electronics theory. Plan on getting an
external speaker right away if you go with the ICOM. If you are a
program listener like I am it's not a good choice. This unit is a POS
for program listening as it will never sound as good as an R8B or
AOR7030+. The R75 has a tiny advantage in sensitivity over the Drake if
DX'ing is your interest, that and the twin passband and DSP might give
it an edge over the Drake in some situations. My opinion here is just
based on specifications. I don't plan on getting experience with the
unit.

The R8B internal speaker is just OK and it sounds much better with an
external speaker. The RX340 internal speaker is also just OK and the
$4K unit also sounds better with an external speaker. A $20 non
amplified bookshelf is all you need.

--
Telamon
Ventura, California

In article ,
"David Eduardo" wrote:

"Telamon" wrote in message
..
.

The Ten-Tec I own is a 340 and I can't comment on the 350.

The 350 has not had a firmware upgrade for nearly 2 years. I have one in a
closet, as it is not a particularly good AM DX machine. I have an old R8 and
a modified R75 that both outperform it.

Why don't you sell it then? Why leave it in a closet. The spectrum
display looked interesting to me. Did that display turn out not to be
useful?

--
Telamon
Ventura, California

Telamon wrote:
In article ,
"David Eduardo" wrote:

"Telamon" wrote in
message
..
.

The Ten-Tec I own is a 340 and I can't comment on the 350.

The 350 has not had a firmware upgrade for nearly 2 years. I have
one in a closet, as it is not a particularly good AM DX machine. I
have an old R8 and a modified R75 that both outperform it.

Why don't you sell it then? Why leave it in a closet. The spectrum
display looked interesting to me. Did that display turn out not to be
useful?

Yeah it is pretty useful. The RX-350 is a very good high end receiver and
might still become an excellent one. It is 100% DSP and has a built-n noise
reduction and auto-notch, three sync modes, and scans very fast. Ten-Tec is
finally working toward a firmware upgrade.

--
Brian Denley
http://home.comcast.net/~b.denley/index.html

In article ,
"Brian Denley" wrote:

Telamon wrote:
In article ,
"David Eduardo" wrote:

"Telamon" wrote in
message

m..
.

The Ten-Tec I own is a 340 and I can't comment on the 350.

The 350 has not had a firmware upgrade for nearly 2 years. I have
one in a closet, as it is not a particularly good AM DX machine. I
have an old R8 and a modified R75 that both outperform it.

Why don't you sell it then? Why leave it in a closet. The spectrum
display looked interesting to me. Did that display turn out not to be
useful?

Yeah it is pretty useful. The RX-350 is a very good high end receiver and
might still become an excellent one. It is 100% DSP and has a built-n noise
reduction and auto-notch, three sync modes, and scans very fast. Ten-Tec is
finally working toward a firmware upgrade.

I looked around on the Ten-Tec site and did not see this mentioned.
Where did you read about it?

--
Telamon
Ventura, California

Telamon: I looked around on the Ten-Tec site and did not see this
mentioned.
Where did you read about it?

mike0219116: I know that PWBR mentioned that there was a new firmware
under development. In fact, they had been suppled with a beta version
of the new firmware. However, because of other committments, Ten-Tec
has been unable to get a final version completed.

"running dogg" wrote in message
...
wrote:

The more I think about it, the more concerned I am about the
reference
to the "limited availability" of the R8B on Drake's website. I
really
hope this isn't the beginning of the end of Drake receivers. That
would
really be depressing.

Drake hasn't brought out a new model in quite some time. I doubt
that
things are going well for the company. In fact, sales of all
tabletops
have been going down while sales of cheap Chinese portables have
been
going up. Passport said in their 2005 edition that the Sat 800
(which is
based on the Drake SW8 but made by Tecsun) will be discontinued
shortly.
AOR no longer sells tabletops in the US or indeed anywhere else
except
the UK. Maybe the end of tabletop makers in the west (including
Japan)
will lead to Chinese makers filling the void-Degen for one is
seriously
talking about a high end receiver, which would probably be too
expensive
for its traditional domestic market. But it's possible that the DXer
market is at its saturation point and that demand for tabletops can
be
satisfied by all the used models already out there. I don't think
it's
the beginning of the end for shortwave radio in general-like I said
Degen and Tecsun seem to be doing well-but it may be the end of the
traditional DXer portion of SW.

I'd asked about the future of the Drake series to the
service manager at R.L. Drake when I sent my Sat 800
in for a tune-up. His response was that the R8B was
it, there would be no R9. Sounds like their satellite
business is doing well; they had landed a deal with
SBC recently, he told me.

Really, it simply sounds like the future of shortwave
radios from Drake is to do the designs and let someone
else build it. The service manager had told me that
after they'd signed the deal for the Sat 800, they'd
wanted to do one more run of the SW8, but they
couldn't.

--Mike L.

Telamon wrote:


The Ten-Tec I own is a 340 and I can't comment on the 350.

The 350 has not had a firmware upgrade for nearly 2 years. I have
one in a closet, as it is not a particularly good AM DX machine. I
have an old R8 and a modified R75 that both outperform it.

Why don't you sell it then? Why leave it in a closet. The spectrum
display looked interesting to me. Did that display turn out not to
be useful?

Yeah it is pretty useful. The RX-350 is a very good high end
receiver and might still become an excellent one. It is 100% DSP
and has a built-n noise reduction and auto-notch, three sync modes,
and scans very fast. Ten-Tec is finally working toward a firmware
upgrade.

I looked around on the Ten-Tec site and did not see this mentioned.
Where did you read about it?

Talked to Gary Barbour at Ten-Tec. He is really trying to get an update in.
He asked if I would do some testing.

--
Brian Denley
http://home.comcast.net/~b.denley/index.html

I couldn't get a definitive answer to that question. He said that the
issue of discontinuation is something that's "under review at this
time". In that case, only time will tell.

Steve

wrote:

I couldn't get a definitive answer to that question. He said that the
issue of discontinuation is something that's "under review at this
time". In that case, only time will tell.

Well, 'under review' actually says a lot!

dxAce
Michigan
USA

FO&A,

RHF wrote:
FO&A,
.
It is my understanding that RL Drake makes more from the
Grundig Satellit 800-M "Licensing Agreement" with the
ETON Corporation then from the Sales of the Drake R8B.
.
If this is true, then the Eton E1 AM/FM Shortwave Receiver
with XM Satellite Radio with the internal Circuit Design
work done by Drake may be a bigger profit center then for
the RL Drake Company then any new R8C or R9 Receivers
could be for keeping the company in business.
.
the business of a business is to stay in business ~ RHF
.
.

My suspicion is that it's the non-shortwave-related stuff they produce
that's keeping them in business...the digital TV and satellite TV
products. The 800, while profitable, is probably a tiny blip on their
radar screen.

Steve

DaviD - What "New" Owner's of the RL Drake Company
are 'you' talking about ? Enlighten Us Please ! ~ RHF

mike0219116 wrote:

http://www.rldrake.com/swl/index.html

Is this Drake subtle way of saying that the R8B is riding off into the
sunset in the near future?

Perhaps even Drake itself?