[Drake] Digital readouts for Drake tube type rigs

[Garey Barrell]

John -

This comes up from time to time.  I guess I'm just too much of a Luddite to understand the 
attraction?!?!

You can easily set the dial of a 4 series to within 100 Hz of a specific frequency with no 
additional equipment.

I realize that ham radio, especially on SSB, (and even some CW?), has become 'channelized', e.g., 
14.210.000 MHz, 14.215.000 MHz, etc..   Some seem to make a big deal of the frequency being  
_exactly_  correct.  Now this has goes all the way back to (primarily) the Collins S-Line in the 
late 50's when arguments would break out over who was 'ON' frequency and who was "NOT"!  It's 
entertaining even today to listen to all the 'exactly on 14.210.000 kHz' stations and hear the 50 
-100 Hz variation as each of them transmit!

VERY few hams today can tell you their absolute frequency to better than +/- 25 Hz, unless they have 
one of the GPS locked frequency standards available today, or have within the last 5 minutes 
verified their standalone calibrator and compared the frequency to their transmitter.

The hardest thing for some to understand is that just because your radio has a 15 digit readout 
does  _NOT_  mean it's _accurate_ to 13 places.  Resolution is NOT Accuracy.

FCC regulations merely say that we have to stay within quite wide frequency ranges.  The Drake dials 
are MORE than adequate to stay within those ranges and/or to find and keep a scheduled meeting.

I had a friend who was older than I am, (YIKES!,) who cut out a piece of card stock and stuck it 
over the last three digits of his fancy digital radio.  He said he would get so obsessed over 'what 
those three digits were' he couldn't enjoy the QSO!!  :-)

Just my opinion.........

73, Garey - K4OAH
Glen Allen, VA

Drake 2-B, 2-C/2-NT, 4-A, 4-B, C-Line
and TR-4/C Service Supplement CDs
<www.k4oah.com>

John King wrote:
> I have a number of Drake receivers, transmitters and transceivers of the tube variety with analog dials. I would like to put digital dials on some of them. I use my TR4 and TR3 the most but I also use my R4 and T4 lines. I am not sure whether I would like digital dials for my 1A, 2A or 2B.
>
> Having as many Drake radios as I have, I would like to determine the digital dial that works well and gives the "most bang for the buck".
>
> I am looking for information that will assist me and I don't want to start a "thread" or cause confusion. I would appreciate direct emails if you can offer information for my consideration. Thanks you for reading and assisting me with the needed information. 73, John, K5PGW
>