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write your own review of the Drake TR 4 and other radios in this line.
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KE1MB
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Rating: 4/5
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Feb 6, 2005 06:08
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Lots of Fun
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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A friend simply gave me a nice looking TR4 and AC-3 powersupply. He had no idea what it was and thought I might like it. The radio looks good and is a real treat to use in a dimly lit room. The receive audio is clear but narrow in the passband. The filters are good. It does use some weird tubes so shop and stock up. Sitting next to my Kenwood TS930s or Collins 390A? It's neither, but it could hear some pretty weak signals compared to either of those rigs. Bottom line, it's a real fun radio to use.
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N8YME
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Rating: 4/5
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Nov 3, 2003 10:34
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A great old rig
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I purchased a used TR-4 long ago. It's a pretty good tube type rig. The finals put out over 200w of power. The only repairs I had to perform to this radio was retrofitting the Transmit/recieve relay with a modern type. Drake sold me a kit to do so. I used a more modern 80's kenwood on field day and I was less than impressed about it's audio quality. The TR-4 does have a pretty rich audio. Since I only have a tech+ ticket and was active when the sunspot cycle was highly inactive I didn't have much of a chance to transmit SSB. When I did I got many compliments about the quality of the signal. No speech processing/compression in this radio.
There are some disadvantages to this radio. First there are no WARC bands and no ability to add them. Drake squeezed as many bands as they could out using the fewest crystals. Hence the 20 meter band is backwards because it shares an oscillator crystal with a different band. The crystal filters are optomized for SSB operation. The band pass is to narrow for AM reception which is quite miserable. The filters are too wide for CW, but I grown used to it. A strong nearby CW signal will blow away a weak one. The offset for CW is 2khz from the VFO freq which is a bit too high for some people's tastes and causes confusion with other operators. The finals are sweep tubes which presents a problem with replacements. The mic jack is an odd switchcraft type. Using an conventional 1/4" phono jack requires modification to the unit. This is not a good radio for RTTY or data. The passband of the crystal filter is centered at 2khz, not 1 khz.
Sadly since I live in an apartment I can't use the radio anymore. The filter caps in the power supply are bad and need replacement. It's been mothballed for many years and simply powering it up without a variac can spell disaster.
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KA3POY
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Rating: 4/5
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Sep 4, 2002 10:41
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lots of fun
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Time owned: months
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I've been using a Drake TR-4 belonging to a buddy for a while and here is my experience:
1. If you want to operate cw, either buy a model that is outfitted with cw filters (ie not the TR-4), or use an outboard audio filter. The base TR-4 has a wide ssb bandwidth, and it is difficult to determine which of the 15 signals you're hearing on 20meters at 9 pm is in your bandwidth :) Additionally, the center freq is about 1 kc, not 700hz like a lot of modern rigs. I hooked up my Timewave 599ZX and this made the rig really work on cw. Once you've got somebody in your bandwidth using the dsp, you can turn it on bypass for that wideband tubey sound that people like.
2. Power: this thing has three final output tubes and it really cranks. My bird 43P shows about 185 watts rf out of the TR4 in cw mode.
73
N5IIT
was KA3POY
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N1KGY
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Rating: 4/5
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Oct 19, 2001 16:41
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A Classic rig!
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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My first rig was a Drake TR-3. This would have been a much better rig if only it had decent filters. After using a string of the IKensu (or is it YaeKencom?) radios, I bought a TR-4. My wish was fulfilled - Same rich audio and low frequency response, but now with a decent set of filters. After a slight mod, I moved the BFO so CW receive is at about 400 Hz. There is nothing better than listening to cw from this rig! SSB is just as rich and enjoyable, too. Transmit audio is aparently as good, as i get compliments on this rig every time I operate with it.
Only disadvantages are; the lack of memory channels and not having the DC-4 power supply to run mobile (or emergency power) with this rig.
For that, break out the IKensu...everything has a purpose ;)
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N9AYH
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 25, 2001 10:11
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Excellent
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I've owned a TR4CW with a factory installed 500hz CW filter since 1979. I purchased the rig used. It was in the orginal box with all the packing material. It was just like new! I have used the rig since then without any problems. I still have all the original tubes in it! Since I operate mostly CW, I also found a RV4C remote vfo for it. Sometime in the mid 80's I got a Icom 735 which I used quite a bit, but I prefer the sound of the Drake receiver on both CW and SSB. It dosen't have any of the newer features but I don't use half the features on the IC735 anyway. I've also owned a Drake "C"line TR4C/R4C. I feel the Drake equipment is some of the best made, most reliable ham gear ever made.
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KI7EL
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Rating: 4/5
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Jul 25, 2001 02:43
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TR-4C
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I got my novice ticket early in 1990 and started saving money for my first rig. Within two months I'd saved enough to buy a Drake TR-4C, AC power supply, external speaker, and microphone.
My first contact was on 15 meters CW from my apartment in Spokane, Washington to a ham in Tennessee. I was hooked.
I since got the DC power supply and external VFO. I worked Armed Forces open house using my Drake with dual VFO's. What a blast.
It didn't take long to learn how to tune the Drake and the Drake was very forgiving of mistakes. I used my Drake regularly until 1995 when I bought a used Kenwood TS-140s. I took the Drake out on Field Day a few years in a row. Made quite a few of contacts with it.
40 meter CW quickly became my favorite band and mode and I've spent countless hours rag chewing with the TR-4C.
My Drake is now one of my backup rigs but I love it. The Drake TR-4C is easy to work on, gives a nice rich full sound from the speaker and is rock solid reliable. If I hadn't found a newer more feature packed HF rig I'm sure my Drake would still be sitting on my desk.
The Drake TR-4C is a great old rig.
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N8FVJ
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Rating: 4/5
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Dec 23, 2000 08:57
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Good performance
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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The Drake TR-4CW with RIT is a transceiver that covers 80 thru 10 meters. The transmitter is rated 300 watts PEP input on SSB, 260 watts input on CW and AM. The features are selectable sideband, CW sidetone, semi break-in operation and RIT. Two 9 Mhz crystal filters are used for upper and lower sideband generation which eliminated the necessity of shifting oscillators. The filters are designed with greater rejection on the carrier side. (Nothing special, just a different design). Receiver sensitivity is good and does not drop off much on 15 and 10 meters. The receiver is selective enough to work the bands, just do not expect performance of later '80s and '90s equipment. Note: The reviews of this and other classic rigs is limited to radios from the same era, thus a four (4) rating is not close to a 4.2 rating of a FT-920! I recommend this and other simular radios as the fun factor is high.
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WB6MYL
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Rating: 4/5
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Sep 2, 2000 23:57
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A lotta fun!!
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I share the feelings of another reviewer on the TR-4 (not the C); yes, no bells and whistles(DSP/notch/etc.)but there is something about these old "boat anchors"; nice warm toooobey sound that comtemporary solid-state rigs just don't have (MOSFET noise??). These are the American radios that many of us dreamed about owning when we were young(er)hams in the 60's and 70's but couldn't afford them; Seem to keep going up in value and getting rare because who wants to
sell these great radios after you start using them!! Love my Drake B line for the same reason!!
Good luck! Phillip W. Harris, PhD. P.C.
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WA4RX
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Rating: 4/5
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Apr 14, 2000 21:33
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Ahead of its time..
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Time owned: unknown months
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I've owned my Drake TR 4 C for some time now and really enjoy running it on the air. The radio itself is surprisingly lightweight and compact and has the potential to run up to 300W input power.
This is by no means a technical review of the radio. It's just a great nostalgic piece of HF gear that every ham should take the opportunity to use. Every once and a while it's fun to get away from all the fancy bells and whistles, DSP filtering, digital readouts, unnecessary 100 memories, etc. etc.. and get back to basics.
Truly a radio ahead of its time!
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