[Drake] Better Antenna Connector on Drake R-4B Receiver

[bonddaleena at aol.com]

Dan, all great suggestions.  My $.02 worth.
I have a largish Drake collection and before setting a radio into place, I always use a small SS wire brush on the female socket and use a tiny bit of "no-alox" on the outside. It has always been my belief that it's the 'petals' not the center conductor that causes problems.
The RCA connectors are OK up through UHF....

ron
N4UE

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: WQ9E <WQ9E at btsnetworks.net>
To: dan <dan at dooleystreasurechest.com>; drake <drake at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tue, Oct 29, 2013 4:01 pm
Subject: Re: [Drake] Better Antenna Connector on Drake R-4B Receiver


Dan,

Unless you are going to be constantly moving this setup around and 
plugging/unplugging the connections the original RCA connectors work just fine. 
Just make sure to use a decent quality phono plug and if needed press in the 
outer "petals" slightly so that they grab the outer shield of the mating jack 
snugly.  The only other reason to use a more secure connection for this would be 
if you were trying to use RG-8 or other large diameter coax for the connecting 
cable and there is no call for that here.

I have R-4/T-4X through R-4C/T-4XC setups here and all use the original 
connection setup and I have never had any failure/issue with it.  For awhile a 
pair of C lines were my main contest setup and they got a lot of use and remain 
my favorite low band CW setup.  The only time I have seen a failure with Collins 
S line and Heathkit SSB gear (which use RCA jacks/plugs for the antenna 
connection) was a cracked ceramic insulator which I suspect resulted from the 
use of a heavy/stiff coax cable.

You can certainly change them but the only result will be a modified setup that 
works no better than the original.

Rodger WQ9E

-------- Original Message --------
> From: "Dan W. Dooley" <dan at dooleystreasurechest.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, October 29, 2013 11:33 AM
> To: drake at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: [Drake] Better Antenna Connector on Drake R-4B Receiver
> 
> Has anyone replaced the original RCA style antenna connector on the back of
> a Drake receiver with a SO-239 connector?  I'm considering doing so and
> perhaps even replacing the other end which is on the back of the T-4XB
> transmitter with the same.  I'm thinking perhaps this would result in a more
> long term secure connection between the transmitter and receiver.  I've
> looked at the area around the connector on the back panel of the chassis and
> it should fit fine.  I've got the receiver opened and on the work bench
> right now doing some other work on it so I thought it might be a good time
> to consider that.
>  
> Thoughts?
>  
>  
> Dan W. Dooley  WB5TKA
>   email:  <mailto:dan at dooleystreasurechest.com> dan at dooleystreasurechest.com
>    <http://www.dooleystreasurechest.com/> Dooley's Treasure Chest 
>  
>  
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