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| Reviews Summary for Drake TR-7 |
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You can
write your own review of the Drake TR-7.
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WD5CCW
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Rating: 5/5
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May 22, 2008 18:52
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Big Rig
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I recently acquired a FULL set Drake TR-7 (including RV7, MN2700, and L7) although I don't have enough room to get the amplifier going, I have had alot of fun getting this rig up and running. The only thing I found not working was the backlight above the Main tuning dial. But with the digital counter above, it wasn't really needed. I like the "calibration" switch on it, a little more modern than my first rig I owned. For a solid state, it really cranks out the watts. Nice looking rig and well built!
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KC9MSA
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Rating: 5/5
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Feb 15, 2008 16:37
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Best radio ever....American made, bulletproof!!!!
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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Best radio ever made....this receiver is more sensitive than that of an Icom 756 Pro III. No kidding. I've seen them side by side...the Drake has a better receive!!!
Very attractive radio, American made, overbuilt like crazy, it'll never fail!!!!
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K3MD
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Rating: 5/5
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May 19, 2007 09:36
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Neat
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Over the past 3 months have acquired a TR-7 with remote VFO and the coveted SP-7 speech processor to add to my vintage rig collection. The only problems were a little tweaking on the SP-7 and a shorted out 500 Hz filter I originally obtained (apparently the short was a solder bead between one of the pins and the case- fixed by putting in one of the INRAD filters, which worked first time).
This rig is BIG and HEAVY for a transistorized rig, but functions very well and has a feel of excellent quality. With the single IF filters, the skirts are not overly sharp, but still very nice (IF is around 5.6 MHz). The rig can be converted to WARC bands, etc., if you desire. Very sensitive, good audio, easily meshes with old fashioned linears with minus 150 volts on the key line. Very stable, nice to have a 25 KHz crystal marker built in. Those blue windows are truly neat. An excellent addition to your Drake/ boatanchor collection. 2T service services them (although mine, bought from a ham rather than an estate dealer on EBay, worked first time).
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WB7QXU
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Rating: 5/5
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Sep 15, 2006 20:29
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Fantastic Radio
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have used Tr-7 over the years and have always been amazed on how well the hear and how quiet they are. The noise blanker and PBT really work and you can tell they work. Much quieter than more modern rigs, and mine was easy to modify for 60m operations. the only small drawl back is the radio needs a good 15min to warm up for the VFO to be rock solid, but that is because the PTO with synthizer is a little older technology, but it sure hears as well as my PROII and no need for DSP, Receive audio is so pleasent to listen to, like the old tube audio. Rock solid in construction built to last. Always a great pleasure to use even on AM it sounds nice.
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KA7OEI
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Rating: 4/5
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Jan 12, 2006 15:23
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Built like a tank...
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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When I got this radio back in 1984, I wanted to get a radio for which I would be able to get electronic parts 20 years later. I still can. It's a bit beat up, having been hauled all over the place, but it still works very well.
As far as the receiver goes, it is about the best of any receiver that I have used, particularly in terms of dynamic range, etc: Some complain about lack of sensitivity - especially on 10 and 15 meters - but as long as you can hear atmospheric noise when you connect the antenna, you are already hearing all that there is to hear - and with the TR-7, you can.
The noise blanker is, by far, the best of any that I have used: When the Russian woodpecker was around, it would take a 40-over pulse down to nothing - or at least down so that your were being QRM'ed by the backscatter instead. It still does a great job on the random noise pulse or light dimmer noise, and it works without "fuzzing" up signals or causing intermod to nearly the extent that other noise blankers do.
The only problem that I have had is with the Driver/PA stages. Once in a great while, something would break into oscillation and then take out a PA transistor: Eventually, I traced it down to an intermittent driver transistor and solved the problem for good.
The internal VFO isn't quite as stable as I'd like (a common complaint) owing to the heating caused by the lamps and the PA, but I usually use the remote VFO anyway or, more recently, a homebrew DDS VFO.
The PS-7 power supply is grossly overbuilt - and the only problem that I've had with it was the failure of the main filter capacitors (after 20+ years, that's not unexpected...) I also have the SP-75 AF/RF speech processor: As with any processor one can go overboard with it, one can apply 6-10 dB of compression to add some punch without it being obvious to anyone listening that there is any processing inline.
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SWL377
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 13, 2005 12:36
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OUTSTANDING xcvr
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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My review comes from a different perspective, commercial fishing. Yes, I know the TR 7 isnt FCC type accepted, but it was widely installed by the fishing fleet in the late 70s. It was a fraction of the price of type accepted gear and was actually more useful since it gave genl cvg continuously tuneble xcv, not channelized. The commercial fishing TR 7s had the board trace cut that made it genl coverage and then also had the lights changed to 28 VDC lights so that they glowed dimly on 12 VDC. No other mods other than a smearing of silicone grease over the contacts of all boards to prevent corrosion. They were outstanding performers, the receive performance especially. They were used on HF SSB mostly, but some comms were made with AME on the old 2-3 MHZ marine band. Even though AM on marine MF HF voice comms was outlawed, many AM sets were still used for medium range comms. The Drakes were usually paired with the incomparable JW Miller AT 2500 auto coupler. A GREAT pair. The only downside to the TR 7 in marine use was the inability to work duplex freqs for HF public coastal station phone comms. One guy, at sea for weeks and desperate to talk to his girlfriend, tried a bootleg comm with a phone station at Pt Reyes CA on HF, telling the station op that he had radio troubles and asking him to tolerate delays in the comm. He then tried to manually tune between the two freqs asking his girflriend to wait a while between the end of her sentence and the beginning of his reply. The station op could see what was going on and refused to permit the call to continue citing "frequency control problems." The TR 7s were very reliable in the worst imaginable conditions. Salt laden air, high humidity, filthy hands all over the front panel, etc. Few failures were experienced. Some boats still have them to use the rcvr to pull in very weak HF SSB sigs. The boats I saw TR 7s on stayed off the ham bands and the military HF freqs. They had notes next to the sets setting out bands to stay off of. They had Ferrels book called Clandestine Frequency List and used it and other info to avoid interloping on bands that would bring down FCC or ham heat. The TR 7 was very stable and the freq readout was accurate. Few who heard them had any idea that they were not true approved marine radios. The TR 7 also saved some lives when used for long distance Mayday traffic. One boat used the TR 7 to contact a USMC HC 130 tanker aircraft near El Toro CA to relay a very very weak Mayday heard from a burning fishing boat between Hawaii and Midway Islands. As I recall that was on 11176.0 USB or thereabouts. No USCG station could be directly reached on assigned marine freqs so the versatile TR 7 just came up on an active mil acft freq and asked for a relay. The Herc's radio op was very surprised but he was sharp and did get through to the USCG through a phone patch with his base. The crew on the distressed boat were rescued thanks in large part to the Drake TR 7 which was the ONLY set which heard the original Mayday.
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HB9DDS
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Rating: 5/5
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Mar 31, 2005 13:01
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Great, rock solid Rig
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I just bought (again, the 3rd time ;-)) a TR-7 (S/N: 1143) in an outstanding condition. And it is real a very good Transceiver, also today. I can compare with a TS-870/2000. A very quiet RX, not nervous, no digital sounding, good filter, good audio (RX+TX). I have connected a external DSP filter (NRF-7) and it covers the very most needs for me (autom. notch etc). I can recommend every person such a rock solid transceiver but have a closer look to the rig, especially inside. For me, it is importand that the rig is in original condition. Otherwise I wouldn't buy it. I've bought also a TR-7A (S/N: 11034) in the same condition.
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K3ICH
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Rating: 5/5
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Feb 22, 2005 06:48
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Ahead of it's time
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Remember, the TR-7 came out in the late seventies, when 99% of the radios in use had fire bottles. The overall sensitivity is fantastic....for a radio that does not have an RF amplifier! The first "stage" is a hot-carrier diode mixer and was one of the first to have the first IF over 30 MHz. That's the primary reason that the overload and image specs are so good. The power amp will put out over 250 watts if the ALC adjustment is cranked up. Cooling however, even with the accessory fan should limit the safe output to around 125 watts. There were a significant number of improvements made to the later units. For example, the product detector was upgraded from a simple pair of diodes to an MC-1496 for vastly improved SSB Rx audio and a newer chassis design held the birdies to a minimum. Drift was marginally acceptable but varied from unit to unit, though typically better than the comparable radios of the day. One huge item I find in favor of the TR-7 is that you can still buy the parts. No custom processor chips or readouts made of unobtainium, just good old Motorola, off-the-shelf IC's and transistors. As to the power supply, yeah, switching supplies are smaller, but the nice quite, conservativly rated PS-7 has a transformer physically larger than that found in some kilowatt amps. It uses the tried and true '723 regulator chip at it's heart which I think was invented by Marconi or deForrest. All in all, the TR-7 is a reliable performer that can be easily maintained. I've seen TR-7 station packages at hamfests for $250 to $400.
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KS4HY
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Rating: 4/5
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Feb 21, 2005 08:26
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Reliable, but lacks sensitivity on 10 meters
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I'll keep this short and sweet. I have owned my Drake TR-7 since 1986, and I have used it heavily. On the positive side the TR-7 receiver is very selective, and stable after a 10 minute warm up period. The transmitter sounds nice with a Shure 444d. The rig is very reliable, and has provided years of good service.
On the negative side the ALC is too aggressive and needs to be relaxed. I was only seeing 25 to 30 watts out on sideband until I relaxed the ALC. The receiver lacks sensitivity on 10 meters when compared to other rigs of similar vintage. The noise blanker is not very good. I have the second generation noise blanker with the jumper in place of the crystal found on the later NB-7a. I have a $200.00 Realistic TRC-451 sideband CB radio made in 1984 and the CB's noise blanker can eliminate electrical noise that the Drake TR-7 can barely touch. The Realistic sideband CB receive is also quiter and more sensitive, but not as selective as the TR-7.
A good rig over all, but not recommended for pulling out the weak signals on 10 meters in an environment with high man made electrical noise.
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WA2JJH
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Rating: 5/5
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Jan 19, 2004 10:02
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An old state of the art rig
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Got mine on ebay. I did many modifications on the net. WARC piece of cake. RX-40khz easy. No AUX-7 board needed!
I like rigs that do high level mixing (no rf amp before mixer) Modern rigs have the option AIP, however this kills sensitivity!
However the TR-7 has great sens. On a wavetek 3000B, I got .45uv. This seems not as good as todays rigs of .18-.25uv.
However the new rigs generate so much synth junk, the Drake comes out ahead in RX.
Used a TODD-750 60AMP swithing supply on the rig.
It weighs 5lbs. The Drake supply is to heavy!
Power outputs-160M-200W! 80-20 160W. 15M-130W
10M-100W
The PBT is OK. I like the twin PBT on my ts-850 better.
However the construction looks like mil. spec!
I do not know why people have complained about stability problems. Warm up for 10 minutes is A-OK
with mine.
The RX audio is better than most rigs today. Some have said the TR-7 sounds almost tube like in audio. I guess if you do all the mods, maybe so.
TX audio is nice too. There are external RF speech
procs on the market for about $60.
I have no noise blanker in the rig. I could care less. The dual noise blankers on my TS-850 do not seem to make that much of a difference. Yes I know, you can mod the NB on the TS-850.
Again much can be said for no RX RF amp. Less junk to amplify. Some of that junk is noise. So that is why not having the NB does not bother me!
I always wanted this rig. Something is to be
said about made in the U.S.A. Perhaps this rig will not become a collectors rig. I could care less!
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