[Drake] S-meter

[bonddaleena at aol.com]

Hi. Long time since I've posted to this list. A recent posting brought 
the 'ole brain back to life.....
I 'might' have asked this before, so excuse me ahead of time if I have. 
(got CRS, you know...ha ha)

Anyway, I have quite a nice Drake collection. I have a mint TR4-CW and 
also what I have nicknamed, "The World's UGLIEST Drake", a TR-4C.

I bought this radio off of ePay, er. eBay a couple of years ago, for 
cheap. I bid on the poor thing, because it came with a pretty nice 
RV-4C.

The radio was honestly described as 'awful'. It appeared to have spent 
some of its life under water. ha ha. Anyway, I got the radio cheap (no 
shipping) and the RV-4C, Power Supply, etc.
The radio IS, (I hate to say 'FUGLY'), mismatched knobs and all. 
However, I realized it had a good noise blanker, which I put in the 
TR-4CW. I modified the RV-4C into a RV-6 with new dials, etc.
I just could NOT bring myself to part out the old girl. Finally (!!), I 
got the radio working. Believe it or not, it plays as well as the rest 
of my Drakes, with one exception: the s-meter is VERY scotch.

I have studied the schematic, the theory of operations, even SWAPPED 
meters and it still reads low. The actual sensitivity is the same as 
the other Drakes, the s-meter just reads low, but it DOES function. I 
have replaced all the pots, etc in the s-meter circuit, but nothing 
helps.

Anybody have ANY ideas???

By the way, the radio is SO ugly, that I will NOT even try to restore 
it. And believe me, I CAN polish a tu*d and make it look new. I just 
keep it in this condition to show my buddies. Yes, it is covered!!! ha 
ha


thanks, sorry for the long description, but, you know.....


ron

N4UE