Using a K2 with a boat anchor receiver?

[Dave, G4AON]

Recently I bought an excellent Drake R4A and am struggling to find a
companion transmitter for it. One option could be to use my K2 as a
stand alone transmitter with an appropriate "external receiver" output
modification to the K2 and a "mute" relay fed from the normal linear
amplifier relay.

I feel sure someone else must have gone down this route, so before I
reach for the cutters and soldering iron I would like to compare
thoughts and ideas!

73 Dave, G4AON
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[Thom LaCosta]

On Sat, 1 Apr 2006, Dave wrote:

> Recently I bought an excellent Drake R4A and am struggling to find a
> companion transmitter for it. One option could be to use my K2 as a stand
> alone transmitter with an appropriate "external receiver" output modification
> to the K2 and a "mute" relay fed from the normal linear amplifier relay.

I don't know what other Drake users might tell you, but using the K2
as a transmitter and ignoring its receiver in favor of the R4A might
not be the highest use of technology.

You might also want to pose that type question to the drakemailing list....
you can get information on joing the list at www.zerobeat.net/drakelist/

I can tell you from personal experience, while it was difficult to get used to
NOT having variable passband tuning when I first got my K2, the drake twins
and the TR7 have an honored place in the area where I store things that I no
longer use.

73,Thom-k3hrn
www.zerobeat.net Home of QRP Web Ring, Drakelist home page,Drake Web Ring,
QRP IRC channel, Drake IRC Channel, Elecraft Owners Database
www.tlchost.net/hosting/  ***  Web Hosting as low as 3.49/month
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[Bob W7AVK]

Good One Dave - Happy first of April.  If you want to also replace the
transmitter section I'll supply a drawing of a great rig using a 6L6.

73  Bob  W7AVK

Dave wrote:

> Recently I bought an excellent Drake R4A and am struggling to find a
> companion transmitter for it. One option could be to use my K2 as a
> stand alone transmitter with an appropriate "external receiver" output
> modification to the K2 and a "mute" relay fed from the normal linear
> amplifier relay.
>
> I feel sure someone else must have gone down this route, so before I
> reach for the cutters and soldering iron I would like to compare
> thoughts and ideas!
>
> 73 Dave, G4AON
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>

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[Don Wilhelm-3]

Dave,

For reasons other than twinges of nostalgia for boat-anchor gear, I can't
understand why anyone would want to actually use such a combination - the K2
has a much better receiver and works QSK nicely as a stand-alone
transceiver.  I would think the Drake would be quite useful as a station
'decoration' that even works, but it is just not up to par with modern
receivers (although the R4A was one of the better ones).

So, yes, you may want to try the AMP keying circuit to see if that works -
if it does not mute the receiver quickly enough for QSK operation, you could
add some delay (more circuits in the keying circuit) to hold the receiver in
a muted state.

Consider also the problem of switching the antenna between the receiver and
transmitter.  Because of these considerations, you may want to consider
breaking the paddle lines and the mic PTT line to the K2 (so it does not go
into transmit until the receiver is ready) and use an external T/R switching
arrangement with relays doing all these tasks rather than using the K2
output to initiate the switching.  Yes, I am thinking that an old-fashioned
Transmit/Receive manual switch may be in order here, but the problem still
remains of spotting the transmit signal, the K2 has no ready means to
transmit a tiny signal to be heard in the receiver, and the K2 VFO does not
change the K2 frequency while transmitting - OK, back to the drawing board!

Have you considered homebrewing a boat-anchor transmitter?

73,
Don W3FPR

> -----Original Message-----
>
> Recently I bought an excellent Drake R4A and am struggling to find a
> companion transmitter for it. One option could be to use my K2 as a
> stand alone transmitter with an appropriate "external receiver" output
> modification to the K2 and a "mute" relay fed from the normal linear
> amplifier relay.
>
> I feel sure someone else must have gone down this route, so before I
> reach for the cutters and soldering iron I would like to compare
> thoughts and ideas!
>
> 73 Dave, G4AON
>

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[N2EY]

In a message dated 4/1/06 7:52:54 AM Eastern Standard Time,
[hidden email] writes:


> Recently I bought an excellent Drake R4A and am struggling to find a
> companion transmitter for it.

Drake T-4X If you're gong to go the hollowstate/BA route, why not all the
way?

73 de Jim, N2EY

....remembering FD 1970, where a 16 year old got to do 40 CW all night with a
pair of Drake twins....
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[Kurt Cramer]

Dave,

That's a great receiver! I have a R-4A, T-4X, R-4c,T-4Xc, TR4c, RV-4c.
Anyway as you can see I like 'em. No it's not a contest receiver, but
listen to AM broadcast and even SSB and it a pleasure to rag chew with
it.

No I didn't try to use it with my K2. Came close while waiting for the
100 watt amp back in 2000 and 2001. However you should have no trouble
with the right relays.

73, Kurt                        

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