[Drake] Drake gear

[Garey Barrell]

telegrapher at att.net wrote:

> I bought a R4B and T4X back in the early 70's.  ALways had good audio
> reports with the T-4X.  Put a muffin fan on top of the PA cage and ran
> it at 70-80 watts output on rtty.  That's tough service when you set
> there and run 1 or more hour long picture transmissions.  Every other
> year or so i'd send it back to Drake for service.  Usually had them put
> new finals in "just cause".  Other than that, never a failure.  The
> receiver was really good for Rtty reception with the passband tuning. 
> WOrked a lot of CW DX with that pair barefoot as well.  Sold them in the
> late 80's and haven't been happy since.  

I ran Drake lines in the late 60's on autostart teletype, 24 
hours/day, including transmissions in excess of 30 minutes at 
full  power.  This phase lasted almost four years!  Each 
transmitter had a fan on the back of the final cage, and each 
receiver  had a fan mounted to the shelf above it blowing air out 
the back.  The power supplies were mounted on a lower shelf 
rather than inside the speaker cabinets.

In four years, I had one failure, a 12BY7A filament went open. 
Finals lasted about two years, with replacement coming when  the 
output power dropped to 100 Watts on 20M.  NO finals "failed", 
and they were only $6 pair, so no problem!  Again, this was 24 
hours/day with long transmit times and frequent transmissions.  ( 
A lot of relaying involved )  I have found that  finals will last 
7-10 years in normal daily ham use on CW or SSB.  Assuming of 
course that you tune up quickly, minimizing off resonance time. 
Long keydown times are not significant, as long as the final is 
IN RESONANCE.  Off resonance these tubes draw tremendous 
currents, (they are rated over 1 AMP of cathode current each) and 
will quickly outgas from an  overheated plate.

Whole thing was a test bed for a Computer Automated Teletype 
Control system (CATC) for NAVMARCORMARS, some published in Ham 
Radio Magazine, February 1976 and others.  Kind of a precursor of 
Packet in hindsight.

> Now i've picked up a T-4X but the top of the chassis is scungy and the
> VFO kinda jumps around a little.  Need to get that fixed so i can get
> this dude back into operation like it was meant to be.  

Probably hardened grease in the front ball bearing for the PTO 
shaft.  You can put in the grounding braid if you like, but I've 
found that white lithium grease on a clean bearing works just as 
well.

> Like to find me a nice clean good operating R-4B along with a Mic for
> the T-4X.  Even a mic plug would be nice.  

Mouser has the mic plugs, S-260 for the straight plug or S-230 
for the right angle for the side mount on the T-4XB.

73, Garey - K4OAH
Atlanta