[Premium-Rx] Receivers

[Charles Steinmetz]

Ed wrote:

>I don't think the Drake qualifies as a premium rx.  But it's 
>definitely great.

Interesting.  It doesn't matter to me whether the R8B is considered a 
premium rx or not, but of all the receivers I have owned (including 
Harris RF-590 and 590A, Ten-Tec RX340, WJ 8711A, Racal RA6790, NRD 
JRC-545 and 525, Collins HF-2050, Cubic R-3030, and others), the R8B 
is by far my favorite.  I have never been able to copy anything on 
another radio that I couldn't copy on the R8Bs, and have many times 
copied things on the R8Bs that I could not copy on others.  It's also 
the best sounding communications rx I've ever heard.  The only 
complaints I have are minor -- the notch filter could use a bit more 
range, it loses sensitivity below 100kHz, and the rubber-matrix 
buttons do not have the tactile feel I'd like (but compared to the 
awful membrane switches on a 6790, they're perfection defined).

When one of the mechanical encoders went intermittent, I picked up a 
few optical encoders with ball bearings from the same Bourns series 
and put one in.  I'll do the same for the other one when it gets 
intermittent.  I doubt I'll ever have to replace them again, but I 
have spares if I do.  The ball bearing shafts will certainly stand up 
to a weighted knob, if one wanted to go that way.

Best regards,

Charles