[Drake] crystal questions

[Chris Pedder]

Hi,

While I have no wish to deprive Bry (who I have known for about 44 
years) of sales, there are perhaps a couple of points to be made.

 From all I have read, the FS4 was an 'early' device which, frankly, 
was not very good; in fact I should prefer to use crystals. A more 
recent synthesiser (English spelling) appeared in June 2004 QST under 
the title "Give That Drake Receiver a New Lease of Life". It has a 
much cleaner output than the FS4 and I believe FAR Circuits produced 
not only a pcb, but also a kit for the device.

If you have, or can obtain, a copy of that issue of QST I think you 
will be impressed.

Chris G3VBL/8P9EM



At 23:00 01/10/2010, N4UE
>Here's my question:
>
>Since Drake FS-4s are made from 'unobtanium', is there a reasonable 
>alternative??
>I have spoken with Doug (N3ZI) about his Direct Digital Synthesizer 
>kits. Doug said it 'might' work, but I would have to reconfigure the 
>osc tube into an amp. It must have something to do with it's low 
>output, plus it does not work well above 32 MHz. I just want a FS-4 
>clone that will work.
>
>I have found a LOT of synthesizer on eBay, but don't want to spend 
>$100 and not have it work.
>AF4K has the crystals I need, but at $16 each, it gets expensive quick!
>
>Any ideas???