Excellent control of filter bandwith and passband But if you like "operating" the radio, these are a great experience - lots of knob twisting. If you're used to digital bells and whistles and point-and shoot operating, these rigs take some getting used to.
#Mtty drake c line mods
When properly refurbished and setup with appropriate mods (Sherwood and InRAD), they hold their own with some of the best available. This is the fourth C Line I've owned in the past 35 years and I never tire of the operating pleasure these rigs give. Just search for my call on youtube to see the B and C line in action ! I just wait to have enough money to load the R4C whit sherwood roofing filter and some mod.įor sure im a proud owner of this old American Radio ! work very well, very sensitive! tuning on transceive after a few minute is a easy job and now is one o my prefered procedure. Listening the RX it's very good ! quiet ! clear. When you have a problem, fix it is just a piece of cake !!! try to fix your self a FT9000 !!! hi hi hi Use this kind of radios its a real pleasure, you have to try !!! 15 minutes of work on them and soon the RX sound like a Hi-Fi equipement ! I brought my C Line from diffent source, the T-4XC on ebay from Norten Ireland Ham and a R-4C from a club station on Faroe Island. How many time i have lose whit black box !!! Ham since 1987 im just discovery the world of vintage gear from 2 years and i fall in love of boat anchor radios.
In summary, I can say that all the things I have heard and read about the C-Line are true.These radios are a great piece of engineering and manufacturing.Good old fashioned yankee ingenuity and knowhow.
#Mtty drake c line serial number
BTW, my R4C is a very early serial number and hasn't any of the Sherwood mods.I installed 2 Inrad filters for CW and narrow SSB, but am considering some or all of the Sherwood mods. I compared the 2 side by side, and I must say the R4C is quieter and maybe a bit more sensitive. I also own a Drake A-Line circa 1965, and had heard a lot about the C-Line, but had never owned or operated one.Well, to be honest, I was pleasantly surprised with its performance.The R4C is as good, or perhaps maybe even a bit better, than my IC-756 ProII. I had Ron Baker, WB4HFN clean it up and realign it for me.Bought a refurbished AC-4 PS and off I went. I happened to be in the right place at the right time! A friend of mine gave me his son's old ham radio that turned out to be a Drake C line.An initial check of the rig showed that both T4XC and R4C worked, except the AC-3 power supply was suspicious (dried up capacitors?) Also, the rig had been sitting in a garage for 25+ years - need I say more? If you can find a pair in good shape, there is no way to go wrong owning this transceiver. I use this rig with the Shure 444 microphone. This particular set of Drake Twins is the only thing in my shack that is Not for Sale. The receiver is as sensitive as anything we own. My friends all tell me that the transmitter sounds better than anything we own. Check my QRZ page to see Boat Anchor City.
#Mtty drake c line plus
I own a Jupiter, Paragon, Omni Six Plus and many others, including Yaesu ( FT-897D ) Kenwood, Icom etc. At start up we are 60 Hz high in frequency. ( search N3ZI on Google ) It still takes about ten minutes for everything to settle in. After installing the N3ZI inspired Digital VFO 1000. I owned the same setup in the early 80's and loved them back then also. With all new glass and proper restoration. We bought one or two tubes at a time while doing the restoration. In the hands of a good operator (I am not a good operator) IMO the Drake C line will hold its own against just about anything on the market today.Īfter some horse trading we got the R-4C and T-4XC with the Power Supply and MS-4 Speaker. I had $1000 cash in my pocket and I offered that. He was getting ready to pack it up and he said he did not want to take it home and asked me to make an offer. He had a late model R4C receiver with the optional 1.8 and 500 filters and the noise blanker and with the Sherwood mods, TX4C transmitter, AC4 PS, MS4 speaker, MN-2000 transmatch, C4 console with all the pieces, the FS4 frequency synthizer, and a L4B amp with two spare NOS EIMAC tubes. I spoke with the owner and he told me he bought a new K3 and a new amp and he wanted to sell his Drakes to get some his $$$ back. As the hamfest was breaking up, I noticed that the Drake C line was still in the truck. Several years ago I attended an old fashion tailgate hamfest.There was a complete Drake C line in the rear of a pickup.