[Boatanchors] Comarison?

[Singley, Rodger]

Bob,

I own Heathkit SB-301/401 and 303/401 stations along with all of the Drake 4 line versions. 

The Heathkit gear is very good but from my experience the R-4A or 4B outperforms the 301 and matches the 303.  The R-4C, once equipped with the proper filters, will outperform the earlier 4 line gear and is thus even better.  Additionally the Drake line covers 160 through 10 (the SB series doesn't cover 160) and WARC bands can be added to the 4 line.  The receiver has either a standard or in the case of the 4C optional noise blanker, this is not available on the SB-303.  The Drake passband tuning works very well on both sideband and CW.  If you are interested in AM the T-4 series transmitters do provide AM transmit capability.

The SB series is attractive and the SB-401 does offer "real" transmitting tubes instead of the Drake sweep tubes but I have never run into an issue with the sweep tubes in the Drake.

If I had to choose one or the other, it would clearly be Drake.  For the best performance, the crystal filtering system in the R-4C works well but they are optional (except for the standard SSB filter and a resistor jumper which enables AM).  So for the R-4C make sure it has the filters you need or prepare to buy them.  For most use, the standard sideband filter plus a 500 cycle CW filter is a good setup.  One of my R-4C's is equipped with the standard SSB plus 1.5, .5, and .25 filters; the other is the same except it has a Sherwood narrow filter.  The 1.5 khz. filter is useful for SSB contest usage.  My R-4C with the Sherwood filter is the best receiver I have found for weak signal CW on 160.  The early R-4C receiver had positions for 2 CW bandwidths (total of 4 bandwidth positions), the later production adds a 3'rd position for a total of 5.  If the R-4C does not already contain the noise blanker prepare to pay a lot for it.  It is a pretty sophisticated circuit and does a good job but it is expensive if you have to find one.

The Drake R-4B uses the final IF to provide the selectivity and thus all 4 bandwidths are standard.  The filtering is good but doesn't have the same sharp skirts as the R-4C.  Passband tuning works well on both receivers but it works extremely well on the R-4C and you can make loud interfering CW signals disappear with a small turn of the passband knob.

Good luck with your choice.

Rodger WQ9E




-----Original Message-----
From: boatanchors-bounces at mailman.qth.net on behalf of Bob Macklin
Sent: Fri 12/18/2009 12:39 PM
To: Boatanchors list
Subject: [Boatanchors] Comarison?
 
I would like to know how the Drake R4/T4 twins compare to the Heath SB twins.

I have had a Heath SB-301/SB-401 pair for many years. The SB-301 has all three filters so it's as good as it gets.

My question is how do the Drake twins compare to the Heath twins. I have had friends that preferred the Drake twins over the Heath twins.

The Collins S-Line is outside my budget and I don't see a major improvement for the money required. I think the Collins thing is mostly SNOB APPEAL!

Bob Macklin
K5MYJ
Seattle, Wa.
"Real Radios Glow In The Dark"
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