Hi all, my name is Ted (KQ4MZ) and I just came into posession of a
Drake R4-C receiver which I intend to build a Drake station from. For
now I just plan to use this as an extra receiver. My question is how
can I connect a coax to the antenna jack on the back of the receiver? I
have never owned any older tube gear aside from old swl radios and have
never seen a phono plug type jack for an antenna. Can I solder the
center conductor of the coax to the pin on a male phono plug and the
braid to the body of the plug? Any help would be most appreciated. I
want to be able to connect the Drake into an antenna switch that I have
all my other rigs connected to . Thanks again for any and all
thoughts.


Ted---KQ4MZ

"tjbitt" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi all, my name is Ted (KQ4MZ) and I just came into
posession of a
Drake R4-C receiver which I intend to build a Drake
station from. For
now I just plan to use this as an extra receiver. My
question is how
can I connect a coax to the antenna jack on the back of
the receiver? I
have never owned any older tube gear aside from old swl
radios and have
never seen a phono plug type jack for an antenna. Can I
solder the
center conductor of the coax to the pin on a male phono
plug and the
braid to the body of the plug? Any help would be most
appreciated. I
want to be able to connect the Drake into an antenna
switch that I have
all my other rigs connected to . Thanks again for any and
all
thoughts.


Ted---KQ4MZ

Pomona Plugs and others make adaptors to go from male or
female phone or RCA plugs to BNC or F connectors. The BNC
would probably be the best choice. Since the receiver
antenna connection will probably be going to a TR switch of
some sort you will need a cable with a BNC on the receiver
side and whatever plug the TR switch takes on the other
side. I would use BNC on both sides with another adaptor on
the switch side since you can get adaptors for BNC to nearly
anything. BNCs can be gotten with constant impedance at
either 50 Ohms or 75 Ohms.
Surprizingly, RCA conectors are pretty good at RF, in
fact, that is what they were originally designed for, they
just are not mechanically strong.


--
---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA

On Mon, 20 Nov 2006 03:48:19 GMT, "Richard Knoppow"
wrote:

Pomona Plugs and others make adaptors to go from male or
female phone or RCA plugs to BNC or F connectors.

He said phono plug, not phone plug. They're two different beasts.

You can also get PL-259 to phono adapters, which might be a better solution than
using BNC.

-- Larry

"pltrgyst" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 20 Nov 2006 03:48:19 GMT, "Richard Knoppow"

wrote:

Pomona Plugs and others make adaptors to go from male
or
female phone or RCA plugs to BNC or F connectors.

He said phono plug, not phone plug. They're two different
beasts.

You can also get PL-259 to phono adapters, which might be
a better solution than
using BNC.

-- Larry

Typing error, calling it an RCA plug should have been the
clue. The info above stands for phono plugs, all sorts of
adaptors are available for them. Even Radio Shack has some.
I mentioned the BNC because it is small and less likely
than a PL-259 to stress the RCA jack its connected to. Since
this is for a receiver antenna the cable can be of a light
weight type. The other end can have a PL-259 or whatever is
desired on it.


--
---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA

"tjbitt" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi all, my name is Ted (KQ4MZ) and I just came into posession of a
Drake R4-C receiver which I intend to build a Drake station from. For
now I just plan to use this as an extra receiver. My question is how
can I connect a coax to the antenna jack on the back of the receiver? I
have never owned any older tube gear aside from old swl radios and have
never seen a phono plug type jack for an antenna. Can I solder the
center conductor of the coax to the pin on a male phono plug and the
braid to the body of the plug? Any help would be most appreciated. I
want to be able to connect the Drake into an antenna switch that I have
all my other rigs connected to . Thanks again for any and all
thoughts.
Ted---KQ4MZ


Ted -

The usage of Phono (RCA) jack for RECEIVERS and some QRP transceivers was
very common in 1950s -- 1980s --- Collins S-Line, Heathkit and Drake.

I own a Drake R-4C --- that I acquired from an estate earlier this year
This unit has required a significant amount of "clean-up" which I am still
doing -- it was a daily user radio and owner appears to have been a smoker.

RECOMMEND:

1. BUILD a small (~ 3 feet) coax patch cable (RG-58-U) or 8X with a phono
(RCA) jack -- one end to connect to Drake R-4C and the connector used for
your antenna switch on the other. IF you don't have these skills -- most
amateur radio service departments and Cable-X-Perts are happy to build this
for you.

2. DO NOT hack or try to change that Drake R-4C connector. The phono jack
field -- this 6 in-line phono connectors on a phenolic board on back panel -
is UNOBTAINIUM. I have personally talked to both H.H. Smith and
Switchcraft -- damage that -- and you would have to fabricate an entire
replacement.

2A. I actually had to disassemble and repair the antenna and speaker jacks
in that field last week --- the former owner had damaged the connectors. 2
hours of labor and some MAAS metal cleaning polish and these 2 jacks are
almost back to factory new -- I was lucky the damage was not more extensive.

You should have jumpers for the MUTE, PTO Lamp on back panel and a jumper
for 7-pin socket inside (if you have no noise blanker installed).

Greg, w9gb

Thanks for the suggestions. I ordred an rca adapter plug today. Do I
need the jumpers for mute PTO lamp etc if I'm using the R4C as a
receiver only ---no connection to transmitter? Hate to be a dummy but
these older radios are completely new to me. Thanks agn for the
help---Ted --KQ4MZ
w9gb wrote:
"tjbitt" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi all, my name is Ted (KQ4MZ) and I just came into posession of a
Drake R4-C receiver which I intend to build a Drake station from. For
now I just plan to use this as an extra receiver. My question is how
can I connect a coax to the antenna jack on the back of the receiver? I
have never owned any older tube gear aside from old swl radios and have
never seen a phono plug type jack for an antenna. Can I solder the
center conductor of the coax to the pin on a male phono plug and the
braid to the body of the plug? Any help would be most appreciated. I
want to be able to connect the Drake into an antenna switch that I have
all my other rigs connected to . Thanks again for any and all
thoughts.
Ted---KQ4MZ


Ted -

The usage of Phono (RCA) jack for RECEIVERS and some QRP transceivers was
very common in 1950s -- 1980s --- Collins S-Line, Heathkit and Drake.

I own a Drake R-4C --- that I acquired from an estate earlier this year
This unit has required a significant amount of "clean-up" which I am still
doing -- it was a daily user radio and owner appears to have been a smoker.

RECOMMEND:

1. BUILD a small (~ 3 feet) coax patch cable (RG-58-U) or 8X with a phono
(RCA) jack -- one end to connect to Drake R-4C and the connector used for
your antenna switch on the other. IF you don't have these skills -- most
amateur radio service departments and Cable-X-Perts are happy to build this
for you.

2. DO NOT hack or try to change that Drake R-4C connector. The phono jack
field -- this 6 in-line phono connectors on a phenolic board on back panel -
is UNOBTAINIUM. I have personally talked to both H.H. Smith and
Switchcraft -- damage that -- and you would have to fabricate an entire
replacement.

2A. I actually had to disassemble and repair the antenna and speaker jacks
in that field last week --- the former owner had damaged the connectors. 2
hours of labor and some MAAS metal cleaning polish and these 2 jacks are
almost back to factory new -- I was lucky the damage was not more extensive.

You should have jumpers for the MUTE, PTO Lamp on back panel and a jumper
for 7-pin socket inside (if you have no noise blanker installed).

Greg, w9gb

tjbitt wrote:
Thanks for the suggestions. I ordred an rca adapter plug today. Do I
need the jumpers for mute PTO lamp etc if I'm using the R4C as a
receiver only ---no connection to transmitter? Hate to be a dummy but
these older radios are completely new to me. Thanks agn for the
help---Ted --KQ4MZ

Hi Ted,

One note, on some of these radios there isn't enough room on the inside
of the chassis for the long center pin (eg. original) RCA phono plug
to fit. I don't know if the Drake is in this group. You should take
a peek inside the chassis, and see if a protruding pin will get too
close to anything.

If you do find this to be the case, you can easily fix the problem
with a pair of diagonal cutters. Basically, you crimp the center pin
with the cutters a little bit, and rotate a few degrees, and do it again.
Just a little at a time, until the excess pin drops off. This rolls
the end over like the original, and makes soldering easier.

-Chuck

Richard Knoppow wrote:
Surprizingly, RCA conectors are pretty good at RF, in
fact, that is what they were originally designed for, they
just are not mechanically strong.

RCA connectors were designed to be cheap. Yes, they were intended for
internal connections (both RF and audio) in radio/phonograph consoles in
the thirties, but that's not to say they are constant impedance in any way.

If you see an RCA connector on an antenna input, you can _probably_ assume
it wants to see a high-impedance longwire antenna. You may get better
results from a 50 ohm source with some matching. Then again, maybe not.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

"Scott Dorsey" wrote in message
...
.

If you see an RCA connector on an antenna input, you can _probably_ assume
it wants to see a high-impedance longwire antenna. You may get better
results from a 50 ohm source with some matching. Then again, maybe not.
--scott

Never saw this before. Drake, Collins and Heathkit all used the RCA phono
socket for low impedance antennas. The recievers that are 600 Ohms or so
used a terminal strip. There may be exceptions, but that's what they are-
exceptions.

Dale W4OP

"tjbitt" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi all, my name is Ted (KQ4MZ) and I just came into
posession of a
Drake R4-C receiver which I intend to build a Drake
station from. For
now I just plan to use this as an extra receiver. My
question is how
can I connect a coax to the antenna jack on the back of
the receiver? I
have never owned any older tube gear aside from old swl
radios and have
never seen a phono plug type jack for an antenna. Can I
solder the
center conductor of the coax to the pin on a male phono
plug and the
braid to the body of the plug? Any help would be most
appreciated. I
want to be able to connect the Drake into an antenna
switch that I have
all my other rigs connected to . Thanks again for any and
all
thoughts.


Ted---KQ4MZ
Ted, do you have a manual for this thing. If not there
is one on-line at:
http://bama.edebris.com/manuals/drake/r4c/
Probably pretty low res. There may be a better one
somewhere, a Google search should find it.


--
---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA