Winter 2022 Vintage Radio

As of last Sunday my winter 2022 vintage radio season is history. Along the way I was on the air in five different events using 5 receivers and 5 transmitters. Three of these events are sponsored by the Antique Wireless Association ( https://www.antiquewireless.org/homepage/contests/ ). One other, Straight Key Night, is sponsored by the ARRL ( https://www.arrl.org/straight-key-night ). The fifth was the Novice Rig Roundup ( http://www.novicerigroundup.org/ ). These events allowed me to get comfortable with my new QTH and were low key enough that I could identify any hidden station quirks without feeling rushed or having to worry about keeping QSOs as short as possible. Each of these events was more like a saunter through the bands rather than a sprint.

The Novice Rig Roundup was my favorite. Its nine day operating window let me work around stormy weather, other contests, family obligations and propagation while still having fun.

I did find that I really like my Drake 2NT/R4B station. The 2NT operates break-in well with the R4B and its delay/timing circuit allows the crystal oscillator to run between code character elements. This minimizes chirp, even for the laziest of crystals. The R4B has KHz frequency readout and great filtering options. This pair is a keeper.

With almost 40 years of radio technology between my '29 transmitters and the 2NT it is not surprising that my '29 station is the more unique (and challenging) to use. Challenging, though, does not mean unusable. While unique and challenging my '29 station is still usable. Depending on conditions I can switch between an SW3, an early 30s National regenerative receiver, and my early 80s Drake SPR4. Once and a while it is good to go back and experience ham radio roots.

We've already had temperatures in the 60s this year. With spring arriving the snow has melted here in southeastern Minnesota. Now I'll start thinking about my QRP in the Park plans.

Putting the Drake 2B on 30 and 17 meters

Recently I noticed the optional crystal frequency chart in my Drake 2B manual. It shows that a 14.0 MHz crystal allows you to listen to WWV on 10 MHz and 30 mtrs on 10.1-10.150. Nice, but wait, buy one get a second one free! The chart in the manual also shows that by retuning the preselector that same 14.0 MHz crystal also covers 17.5-18.1 MHz. This includes the lower half of the 17 mtr band. It looked like shifting the crystal up 100 KHz would shift coverage to include the entire 17 mtr band and still keep WWV and 30 mtrs on the dial. Outstanding!

A quick check of the AF4K Crystals website at http://www.af4k-crystals.com/  shows that he stocks 14.1 MHz crystals in HC6 style holders.

Range C on my 2B now covers WWV, 30 mtrs and 17 mtrs.

Where is Solar Cycle 25? 

Drake 2-NT Transmitter

Last week I traded some of my 1930s heavy metal for a Drake 2-NT novice transmitter. At this point I'm interested in a decent rig I can carry rather than heavy weight shelf queens that need the next door teenager to get them out of the basement. What a great trade!

The 2-NT was introduced in 1966, late in the classic novice era when novices were still limited to 75 watts CW only and transmitters had to be crystal controlled. Around 2500 were produced. Within the novice restrictions the  2-NT had features that put it far above the competition. It was comparatively compact, included QSK or semi-breakin transmit/receiver switching and had receiver muting. Also, 80 through 10 meter coverage made it attractive beyond the novice license. The keying is set up so that the oscillator runs with a settable delay and the buffer stage is keyed to minimize chirp. Drake did a fine job with this rig.

The 2-NT was introduced with the Drake 2C but the 2-NT works well with a lot of radios that have a built-in mute function. The receiver mute function just needs to be designed so that the receiver mute terminal is grounded for receive and left floating for transmit.  This includes the Drake 2B, the 4 line (R4, R4B, R4C) receivers and the SPR-4 receiver. WARNING: Drake did this by wiring the mute function into the AVC circuit. Some radios may do this by controlling the receiver B+. I'd be careful running receiver B+ into my 2-NT.

Now I needed to decide which receiver to pair with the 2-NT. While a  2C would be nice and would cosmetically and market wise match the 2-NT, I don't have one. I do have a 2B, an R4B and an SPR-4. The 2B is a nice radio but it is of the previous generation. For now I'll leave it paired with my Eico 720. The SPR-4 is the same design vintage as the 2-NT and was Drake's first all transistor receiver. It is a fine example of what can be done with transistors in the mid 60s. Unfortunately Drake designed the SPR-4 as a high end SWL receiver. They didn't give me enough knobs to play with. AVC, bandwidth and passband are all fixed depending on the mode (USB/LSB/CW/AM) selected. Unfortunately the CW passband (and, therefore, the peaked CW pitch) is fixed at a higher pitch than my ears like. The SPR-4 went back on the shelf, possibly to wait for this winter and VLF experimenting.  The R4B has adjustable bandwidth and passband along with AVC choices and it is of the right vintage. Like Goldilocks I found my third choice, the R4B, to be just right.

Together the 2-NT and R4B work great. I'll certainly have them on the air a lot.

The 2-NT is also featured in the Sept 2019 issue of QST, Classic Radio column.