Hey lou,
How does the drake compare to the Icom performance wise or have you had
your hands on both? I am a ditw Drake fan ever since I had my tr3. The
sp4 was awesome with that rig. Sure beat the Swans. I did enjoy my
ic701 but never got used to the optical stepping on the VFO. The RM2
was nice however.
###
BRETT WINCHESTER
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208-639-8386
###
-----Original Message-----
From: For blind ham radio operators
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Lou Kline
Sent: Wednesday, August 01, 2007 4:46 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: A Replacement for an Icom R71 Receiver
Hi.
Too bad you didn't catch me when I had my Drake R8A up for sale. That
would've done the job in fine shape, as would the Drake R8B. Another
good candidate would be the Icom R75. You might prefer the Icom because
it has a speech board and a very nice DSP unit. The Drakes are only
available on the used market, but there are still new Icom R75 receivers
out there. It takes the UT102 speech synthesizer, and last I knew, Icom
was giving the
UT106 DSP unit away with the receiver. It only has 6 KHz and 2.4 KHz
filters in it, so you'll probably want to buy the 3.3 KHz filter for
narrow AM and one of the CW filters, and maybe a narrow SSB filter. Be
prepared for sticker shock on the filters--the radio itself is
substantially less expensive than the R71A, but the accessories make up
the difference in a hurry.
Receiver performance is close to that of the R71A,; I think the strong
signal characteristics of the R71A are a little better, but the Icom R75
does a respectable job. Also, plan on getting some kind of external
speaker as the built in is pretty poor. Icom just doesn't seem to know
how to put a good speaker in a radio. That was one thing I liked about
the Drake--the audio sounded like a million bucks on it.
73, de Lou K2LKK
At 03:25 PM 8/1/2007 -0500, you wrote:
> I am looking for a communications receiver to replace my aging
>ICR71 which I have had for about 22 years of generally great service on
>HF. I run separate transmit and receive so I only need to worry about
>receiver quality in this decision.
>
> What I have in mind is something with generally the same
>capabilities as the ICR71 with hopefully a serial interface that I can
>use with a computer.
>
> I have a Uniden BC780 scanner which I can fully control with
>the exception of things like volume and squelch from a Linux computer.
>The serial commands are turse, but not hard to master.
>
> It would be nice to have that same capability on HF.
>Also, if the HF receiver had that serial interface, it wouldn't matter
>so much if it had an on-board speech output since the computer could
>read the information one needed and its speech synthesizer would tell
>you what frequency was being heard.
>
> I seem to remember the ICR71 was around 600 Dollars so I am
>figuring on needing to spend something similar. I think every 20 to 25
>years, it's time for a newer receiver.
>
> The R71 is still working, but getting really strange glitches
>in its behavior, probably due to electrolytic capacitors reaching the
>end of their lives.
>
> Any suggestions are appreciated.
>
>Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK Systems Engineer OSU
>Information Technology Department Network Operations Group
>
>
>
>--
>No virus found in this incoming message.
>Checked by AVG Free Edition.
>Version: 7.5.476 / Virus Database: 269.11.2/931 - Release Date:
>8/1/2007
>4:53 PM
Louis Kim Kline
A.R.S. K2LKK
Home e-mail: [log in to unmask]
Work e-mail: [log in to unmask]
Work Telephone: (585) 697-5753
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