This is the question:

Would you swap a Drake r8b for a Collins 51 S1? Why do I ask this?

I have a Drake R8B and a Wellbrook 1530+ antenna, and pick up a lot ot QRM and noise S5 - 6 so I cannot do DX, I have tried with other antennas and the result is the same.

I have read in other forums that receivers with valvel are less noiser and one owner of the Collins 51 s1 says that QRM and noises do not exist.

Do you think that it is worth swapping it?

Thanks. Any comments are very welcomed

"carlos2007" wrote in message
...

This is the question:

Would you swap a Drake r8b for a Collins 51 S1? Why do I ask this?

I have a Drake R8B and a Wellbrook 1530+ antenna, and pick up a lot
ot QRM and noise S5 - 6 so I cannot do DX, I have tried with other
antennas and the result is the same.

I have read in other forums that receivers with valvel are less noiser
and one owner of the Collins 51 s1 says that QRM and noises do not
exist.

Do you think that it is worth swapping it?

Thanks. Any comments are very welcomed


Internally generated noise and noise that comes in the antenna
lead from external sources are two very different things. Both
are nice receivers, but the 51S1, while collectable and pricey,
isn't a stellar performer when it comes to strong signal handling.

On Sun, 21 Sep 2008, carlos2007 wrote:


This is the question:

Would you swap a Drake r8b for a Collins 51 S1? Why do I ask this?

I have a Drake R8B and a Wellbrook 1530+ antenna, and pick up a lot
ot QRM and noise S5 - 6 so I cannot do DX, I have tried with other
antennas and the result is the same.

I have read in other forums that receivers with valvel are less noiser
and one owner of the Collins 51 s1 says that QRM and noises do not
exist.

You're misinterpreting the comments.

Your problem is noise that's coming in the antenna, and the receiver
won't do a thing about that.

Even thirty years ago, there wasn't much around the average house
that generated noise. But now, just about everything is computerized
or digitized, and it all generates noise. All those switching supplies
too, they generate noise, in some cases even with the equipment turned
off. So the radio spectrum is far noisier now than in the old days.
The only places that won't suffer will be out in the country, where
there are few people to have electronic equipment around that generates
all that noise.

The noise generated in a receiver may or may not be an issue, unrelated
to this external noise problem. The noise figure of a receiver becomes
increasingly significant as you go up in frequency, while on the shortwave
bands it means relatively little since the "noise" generated by the sun
and such are less significant at the lower frequencies. Many shortwave
receivers had quite large noise figures, 8dB or so, and it never mattered,
while that sort of noise figure in the VHF range would be considered
awful; you'd want 2dB or so up there.

One confusing thing is that a cheap receiver with little gain appears
to be "less noisy" than a good receiver with lots of gain. To the
beginner, the noise coming out of a good speaker sounds bad, but
it's not. My first receiver, a Hallicrafter's S-120A (the transistorized
one) had virtually no gain, so there was little background hiss. When
I moved to an SP-600 a year later, it sounded so noisy because there
was all this hiss between stations. But the SP-600 was a much better
receiver.

Michael VE2BVW

"carlos2007" wrote in message
...

This is the question:

Would you swap a Drake r8b for a Collins 51 S1? Why do I ask this?

I have a Drake R8B and a Wellbrook 1530+ antenna, and pick up a lot
ot QRM and noise S5 - 6 so I cannot do DX, I have tried with other
antennas and the result is the same.

I have read in other forums that receivers with valvel are less noiser
and one owner of the Collins 51 s1 says that QRM and noises do not
exist.

Do you think that it is worth swapping it?

Thanks. Any comments are very welcomed

If you hear a noise increase when you attach your antenna (and I am certain
you will), then a RX with a lower MDS wil be of no help.

Dale W4OP

If you plug in the 51S-1 to the same antenna, you will likely hear the same
noise level. The R8B is a wonderful receiver that has a nice noise blanker
and generally a better performer than the 51S-1. It is also easier to
maintain.

Colin K7FM

carlos2007 wrote:
This is the question:

Would you swap a Drake r8b for a Collins 51 S1? Why do I ask this?

I have a Drake R8B and a Wellbrook 1530+ antenna, and pick up a lot
ot QRM and noise S5 - 6 so I cannot do DX, I have tried with other
antennas and the result is the same.

I have read in other forums that receivers with valvel are less noiser
and one owner of the Collins 51 s1 says that QRM and noises do not
exist.

Do you think that it is worth swapping it?

Thanks. Any comments are very welcomed




From a purely economic point (nothing else), especially over time, the
Collins will always be more valuable than the Drake. This assumes like
condition of the two.

"carlos2007" wrote in message
...

This is the question:

Would you swap a Drake r8b for a Collins 51 S1? Why do I ask this?

I have a Drake R8B and a Wellbrook 1530+ antenna, and pick up a lot
ot QRM and noise S5 - 6 so I cannot do DX, I have tried with other
antennas and the result is the same.

I have read in other forums that receivers with valvel are less noiser
and one owner of the Collins 51 s1 says that QRM and noises do not
exist.

Do you think that it is worth swapping it?

Thanks. Any comments are very welcomed

You need to try to reduce the QRM (man made). If you can run the radio from
battery and make the noise go away by killing the mains, you have something
to work on. If it is really QRN (nature's noise) that's just tough. That
antenna has a preamp. Not always a good thing. The amplifier will amplify
signal AND noise. If you are able to selectively bypass it, you will have
more options. If there is too much noise and signal, all you do is risk the
extra noise generated in the amplifier. The theory behind a loop, is that
you lose some signal, but you can orient it to lose more noise, so you can
hear signal that might be obliterated otherwise. It is best to have more of
a wire antenna, high and in the clear to catch signal at the risk of
catching more noise, so that you can switch back and forth for the best
reception. Even fine painted wire for stealth is better than nothing.

The fact of life, is that the ionosphere will either reflect the signal or
absorb it and either you will hear it or not. QRN goes up and down. The
Collins is a neat thing if you have room for both but I wouldn't swap them.

On Mon, 22 Sep 2008, JB wrote:


"carlos2007" wrote in message
...

This is the question:

Would you swap a Drake r8b for a Collins 51 S1? Why do I ask this?

I have a Drake R8B and a Wellbrook 1530+ antenna, and pick up a lot
ot QRM and noise S5 - 6 so I cannot do DX, I have tried with other
antennas and the result is the same.

I have read in other forums that receivers with valvel are less noiser
and one owner of the Collins 51 s1 says that QRM and noises do not
exist.

Do you think that it is worth swapping it?

Thanks. Any comments are very welcomed

You need to try to reduce the QRM (man made). If you can run the radio from
battery and make the noise go away by killing the mains, you have something
to work on. If it is really QRN (nature's noise) that's just tough. That
antenna has a preamp. Not always a good thing. The amplifier will amplify
signal AND noise. If you are able to selectively bypass it, you will have
more options. If there is too much noise and signal, all you do is risk the
extra noise generated in the amplifier. The theory behind a loop, is that
you lose some signal, but you can orient it to lose more noise, so you can
hear signal that might be obliterated otherwise. It is best to have more of
a wire antenna, high and in the clear to catch signal at the risk of
catching more noise, so that you can switch back and forth for the best
reception. Even fine painted wire for stealth is better than nothing.

The fact of life, is that the ionosphere will either reflect the signal or
absorb it and either you will hear it or not. QRN goes up and down. The
Collins is a neat thing if you have room for both but I wouldn't swap them.


And the Collins would be a big shock to anyone who grew up with modern
solid state receivers.

Tune 500KHz, shift the band, then tune another 500KHz, shift the band
again.

Lesser receivers of the period suffered from lots of things like
not so great definition on the tuning dial, but you could tune a 2:1
range per band.

Current synthesized receivers don't have different bands for the
shortwave spectrum, it's done invisibly inside so you can tune
from the top of the broadcast band to the 30MHz with one swoop
of the tuning knob (well, numerous turns and more of them the
finer the tuning steps, but no bandswitching needed). They also
often have the ability to enter a frequency from a keypad, so
you can jump easily to the general area you want to tune.

Michael VE2BVW

carlos2007 wrote:

Would you swap a Drake r8b for a Collins 51 S1? Why do I ask this?

I have a Drake R8B and a Wellbrook 1530+ antenna, and pick up a lot
ot QRM and noise S5 - 6 so I cannot do DX, I have tried with other
antennas and the result is the same.

So, get an AM radio with a loopstick antenna, walk around the neighborhood,
and see where the QRM is coming from. Then fix it.

I have read in other forums that receivers with valvel are less noiser
and one owner of the Collins 51 s1 says that QRM and noises do not
exist.

He doesn't have a touch lamp. If he had a touch lamp, he wouldn't be able
to use his radio at all.

It's true that radios with good filters and lots of dynamic range on the
front end are better at dealing with QRM, but if you have an issue that is
severe, you need to find it and fix it.

Do you think that it is worth swapping it?

No, because it doesn't solve the problem.
--scott

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