[Elecraft] OT: Trade K2 for Drake TR4CW/RIT or C line

[ron]

Brett gazdzinski wrote:
> I had an R4c and T4xb? with added 160 meter crystals.
> I cant say I liked it much, they had an odd tuning setup,
> and I thought it was crazy to mix transistors and IC chips
> in with the tube circuits they way they did, 
> in high voltage points and in line with the tubes.
> Look at the R4C schematic and tell me that it does not
> look crazy, IC chips at over 100 volts and so on!
>
> It might be hard to keep one going with that kind of mix.
>
> The filter setup worked very well, very nice looking gear
> and it was a very nice sounding radio, seemed to have very clean
> audio on cw and ssb, low noise, but was not user friendly.
>
>   
 
Hi Brett,

When those radios were built, solid state was coming into it's infancy. 
Even tellies were hybrids during that era.
Progress improved and they became more solid state and less tube type.

The "mix", as you refer to it, was not done on purpose. The first area 
of solid state I suspect, was in the tuner section and technology 
advanced from there.

The radios ARE user friendly. You probably grew up in solid state era 
(like me) where the radios do the work for you. (menu-driven) We all 
have become accustomed and expect the "machines" to work for us. I too 
am guilty of that (heh heh).
It takes me only a few seconds to tune the radio once the learning curve 
was mastered. There are NO menus or other stuff to learn.

The Drake line made very good radios in their day and they are still 
popular and work well under trying conditions.
Google Drake and you will find a wealth of info, more so than any other 
American made brand in their day.

Ron, wb1hga
"the K1 is more fun, than a barrel of monkeys"