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Drake 'B' line Pages

Drake is one of the classic makes of Amateur radio equipment. Built in Miamisbirg Ohio USA between 1958 and 1982.

The R. L. Drake Co. was founded by Robert Lloyd Drake Sr, his philosphy was always to build the very best equipment, and for this there was a price premium. Here in the UK in 1969 a Drake R4B receiver would have cost more than a UK built HF SSB transceiver like the KW2000A/B.

Over the years Drake equipment has become highly collectable, possibly only Collins has a similar reputation for quality (and longevity!). Drake amateur radio equipment can be found on every part of the globe. If the equipment is not there, the name Drake is known and respected. Amateur Radio operators come in all walks of life and at one time or another have owned, wanted, or used a piece of radio gear manufactured in Miamisburg, Ohio. King Hussein of Jordan used Drake gear, as well as Barry Goldwater, Roy Neal, and Ronnie Milsap.

The amateur radio station aboard the Queen Mary was once a complete line of Drake equipment. The R. L. Drake Co. amateur radio equipment has been use in hot air balloon flights trying to fly non-stop across the country or around the world. An around the world attempt on a sailing yacht used Drake gear, the details were outlined in an issue of the Smithsonian Magazine. The non-stop flight of the Voyager was aided with Drake gear. Many far away and remote islands have been temporary home of DX-peditions using Drake gear to contact their fellow amateurs. A complete 7-line was taken to China as international goodwill by a California University. Famous amateurs include James Stewart, Chet Atkins, Joe Walsh, and Astronauts such as Owen Garriot and Tony England. Marlon Brando, at one time, wanted to use Drake amateur radio equipment as a communications link on his island.

I can remember that in the late 60's and early 70's Drake was an icon of quality for many amateur radio operators in the UK, it was distributed through an outlet called Radio Shack (Not the US Company) in Hampstead North London. The young 17 year old G3ZPS and his buddies drooled over the kit in their showroom, but it was too damn expensive!

The R4B receiver is an evolution from earlier models and has one or two extra semiconductor components compared to the R4A. This model dates from around 1969.

The receiver really is bomb proof on a 40m dipole at night, the very narrow preselector ensures rejection of signals a hundred KHz awayThis particular model is in super condition and appears to work well on all bands. One oddity I have discovered is that its really hard to photograph this gear up close, the silver letters appear to'fade away' in the picture - probably due to the flash.

The Drake T4XB is the companion to the R4. Again a brilliant design with perhaps just one small flaw - the output tubes. The final Tubes of the T4X series are 6JB6 'sweep tubes' intended for operation in US colour TV's. They are not rated for RF Amplifier duty although in good condition they could easily operate at 50MHz. In the late 60's and early 70's they were cheap - very very cheap to buy, perhaps as low as 50cents during production.

If looked after they will provide good RF service for years, but replacements are expensive (and hard to get in the UK). Although there are mods for the more rugged 6146B (also getting expensive) I have left this TX all original and like so many, the power OP drops off on 10 and 15m. I have included many Drake links on this website, but if you own any of the equipment you'll probably know about these links anyway.

Above is the picture of my complete Drake 4B line - sometimes called the 'Twins'. the Drake badge is missing from the Speaker for some reason. It looks good and certainly not over 30 years old - unlike the operator. I try and run the equipment every week on 40, 80 or 160m

Material Copyright © 2002 {Steve Shorey}