Kevin: I can't share any first hand experience with the Drake 2-series receivers, but I have experience with Drake (R-4B and C), Hallicrafters, Hammarlund and Collins (S-Line and A-series) receivers. First, if AM is your thing, you don't need to spend your money on Collins. Collins pretty much abandoned AM in the early '50s and they tailored their equipment to SSB. Audio quality is as good as it gets (or needs to be) for SSB communications, but you'll never get hi-fi AM from a stock Collins radio. I've owned a 75A-3, 75A-4 (still have it) and a 75S-3, all with 6 kc filters. Great radios all for what they were designed for, but it wasn't AM.
Limiting my comments to the radios you mentioned, I think the 4-series Drake would be the best overall choice in terms of audio quality, QRM fighting ability and reasonable price. I've had both the R-4B and R-4C, and I think the B would be your best value. With all due respect to the other companies and their fans, I don't believe that Hallicrafters or Hammarlund are in the same league as Drake or Collins, so if you can afford Drake 4-series I say go for it. Jim W2BVM ________________________________ From: Kevin Nathan <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Fri, October 1, 2010 2:14:17 PM Subject: [Drakelist] Receiver Comparison Question Hi All, I would like your thoughts on the following concerning receivers. A friend thought this might be the best place to air this discussion and I agree. Below is the basic set of questions I asked him but I welcome any and all feedback from you guys. Earlier this summer I bought a Drake 2B and I have been using it as my primary AM receiver for a month now and like a lot of things about itincluding sensitivity, stability and its selectivity on SSB and CW. The one thing I find less than pleasing is the narrow bandwidth of the 3.8 kHz AM filter. I have a couple of questions surrounding that. First, do you know of any mods to widen the bandwidth a little on AM? The other question is regarding differences between receivers. Since most of you have used both the 2B and R4, how would you describe the differences between them? Is the R4 better in terms of AM fidelity? What kinds of QRM fighting tools are available on the R4 similar to the Q multiplier of the 2B? I am seriously thinking of perhaps selling this 2B as a stepping stone to something nicer. The R4, possibly the Hallicrafters SX-100, Hammarlund HQ-140x or HQ180 and Collins 75S series come to mind but I think the Collins is probably out of my price range. What do you think? Thanks much for your opinions and very 73. Kevin :) Amateur Radio: K7RX
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