[Boatanchors] Comarison?

Fri Dec 18 14:20:52 EST 2009

Rodger makes a very strong case in favour of the Drake Twins, to be sure...

I am lucky enough to own, or to have owned, both sets here---i.e. an
SB-301/400, & A "vanilla" R-4/T-4X---and while the Drake receiver does offer
the possibilities of relatively easy-to-incorporate WARC bands & 160, if all
you're ever going to operate is the "traditional" HF Ham bands, then the
simplicity of the Heathkit is hard to beat...ditto the price!

Similarly with the T-4X vs. the '400: unless Topband and/or AM is in your
future anytime soon, the Heath is tough to beat.

Irregardless, BOTH marques---IMHO---are INCREDIBLY affordable these days! I
purchased my R-4, T-4X, matching Drake speaker, AC-4 power supply, and ALL
the manuals for a paltry $350.00 two years ago! (NOTE: that'ds CANADIAN
dollars, too!).

That'd hardly make-up even the down payment on a "rice rocket" in to-day's
Ham retail world.

Plus---and to me this is a VERY big plus!---both the Heath & the Drake stuff
are still VERY serviceable by most average Hams (have you looked into the
innards of any of the new "appliances" on the market to-day...?).

~73~ de Eddy VE3CUI - VE3XZ

*********************************
.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Singley, Rodger" <rbsingl at ilstu.edu>
To: "Bob Macklin" <macklinbob at msn.com>; "Boatanchors list"
<boatanchors at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Friday, December 18, 2009 2:08 PM
Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] Comarison?

> 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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