[Drake] R4-C question

[telegrapher at att.net]

This must be the stupid question of the year.  I've been complaining 
that my R-4C which was supposedly really a hot radio has low 
sensitivity, audio and other things related.  Just happened to be 
looking on Ebay at some Drake items and i see that one fellow is selling 
the 7 pin plugins for the noise blanker socket for when the NB is not 
there.  A light bulb came on and i asked myself, since the NB is not in 
this receiver, what is plugged into that socket, if anything?  Grabbing 
a flashlight so i could see inside the radio, it's tucked away on a 
shelf in a spare bedroom where light is sparse (keeps the heat level 
down and uses less electricity of course) and took a peak into the top 
of the receiver.  guess what?  No plug in that socket.  Now the question 
is, will that kill the receiver, well not really but deaden it 
considerably?  Little or no "S" meter readings, peaking of the 
preselector works but not significantly and audio output is way down. 
I'm suspecting that i've found the cause of all my problems with it.

Experts?  Now why would the seller of this beautiful radio do such a 
thing and, if that is the trouble with it, then turn around and say it's 
a really great receiver, i use it all the time and it works flawlessly?

Lying S*#

larry
W0OGH