Fellow Drakesters -
I bought an R-4B a few weeks ago, sort of sight-unseen, on the assurance that
it was an "8" (I assumed out of 10, but I won't go there right now...)
The receiver works very well and pulls in the signals as good as anything ever
made. It transceives well with both my T-4X's. The audio sounds like some
component values were tweaked, as it has a rich sound with more lows than I'm
used to hearing.
Here's the ugly part, and I know there are some of us who are more "purists"
than others. I've been tending toward looking for rigs that haven't had a
heavy hand taken to them - which this one has. The previous owner moved the
INJ jack over to one of the SPARE locations (why? Don't know!) - shortening the
shielded cable to the jack i the process. He drilled through the "target" that
the factory provided on the front panel where the headphone jack used to be and
put a pot with a Drake knob. This pot is used to vary that AGC delay. There
is no longer a headphone jack on the side. He replaced all the RCA jacks with
high-quality jacks. Unfortunately, it appears he used some sort of "tuner
cleaner" on the bandswitch, but nothing seems to be broken. There are other
changes that will be easier to undo - such as going back to the factory panel
and cabinet screws.
I'm looking for consensus from our ranks: would you try to put things back,
leave it but clean it up, or leave it as is? I'm leaning toward selling it, as
I found a better one at the hamfest.
Moral of the story: when buying these on the ham websites - demand pictures of
front, back and interior as a minimum, unless it's either ridiculously cheap or
you know the seller!
73,
Steve Wedge, W1ES/4
"I can't complain, but sometimes I still do."
- Joe Walsh
If the above message appears, it came from Steve's Son of Laptop!
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