Some years back, when hooking up an external speaker (Alpha Delta VRC)
to my Drake SW8, I had to use a special adapter because the Drake's
audio output "floats" with regard to ground.

I've never really used external speakers with any other radios other
than my SW8 and tabletop units. Recently, however, I had thought to
use an external speaker with some portable units: Sony SW77 & 2010,
and Eton E1. I'm guessing that I don't need to worry about "floating
output" with regard to these units, but I'd like to confirm about this
before hooking 'em up to an outboard speaker. Can anyone here confirm?

Secondly, with regard to the Drake SW8, I've used the aforementioned
adapter which allows this receiver to be used with an outboard speaker.
The adapter is a 1/4'' male to female mini plug with a small wire that
connects to the receiver's chassis. Up to now, I've only used this
adapter when running the SW8 off of AC. I would ask anyone who might
know, is use of such an adapter equally adequate for protecting the SW8
from adverse affects when hooking the receiver up to an external
speaker when the receiver is being run off of batteries?

Thanks for any help provided,

Junius

In article .com,
"junius" wrote:

Some years back, when hooking up an external speaker (Alpha Delta VRC)
to my Drake SW8, I had to use a special adapter because the Drake's
audio output "floats" with regard to ground.

I've never really used external speakers with any other radios other
than my SW8 and tabletop units. Recently, however, I had thought to
use an external speaker with some portable units: Sony SW77 & 2010,
and Eton E1. I'm guessing that I don't need to worry about "floating
output" with regard to these units, but I'd like to confirm about this
before hooking 'em up to an outboard speaker. Can anyone here confirm?

Secondly, with regard to the Drake SW8, I've used the aforementioned
adapter which allows this receiver to be used with an outboard speaker.
The adapter is a 1/4'' male to female mini plug with a small wire that
connects to the receiver's chassis. Up to now, I've only used this
adapter when running the SW8 off of AC. I would ask anyone who might
know, is use of such an adapter equally adequate for protecting the SW8
from adverse affects when hooking the receiver up to an external
speaker when the receiver is being run off of batteries?

Thanks for any help provided,

I don't understand why you had to "float" the connection from the Drake
SW8 to the Alpha Delta VRC because I don't know what it is. Maybe it was
an active speaker?

If you are connecting the radio to an external passive speaker you just
have an external isolated voice coil in the speaker and so you just
connect the two wires from the radio using the appropriate plug. Most
speakers are 4 to 8 ohms impedance and most tabletop to large portable
radios have enough power to drive a bookshelf size speaker. Headphones
are a better candidate for a small portable.

--
Telamon
Ventura, California

Telamon wrote:


I don't understand why you had to "float" the connection from the Drake
SW8 to the Alpha Delta VRC because I don't know what it is. Maybe it was
an active speaker?

Now discontinued VRC, external speaker w/audio filtration (notch, peak,
high freq cut-off, low freq boost/cut-off):
http://www.alphadeltacom.com/pg12.htm

Warning in instruction manual that "if neither radio receiver output
lead is grounded to the radio chassis, e.g. an insulated jack or
balanced output, then DO NOT connect the body of the plug to either
output terminal as this may cause damage to the circuits of the radio
but instead connect the tip of the plug to one of the output terminals
and the body of the plug to the radio receiver chassis. If the radio
otput is an insluated 1/4'' jack as with the Drake SW8, use the
furnished plug adapter and connect the wire lead of the adapter to a
screw on the radio chassis. On other radios with balanced output, make
or buy an adapter to make these connections properly."

As stated by someone previously in this newsgroup: "Be very careful
when connecting Drake radios to active devices like computer speakers
and applifiers. Some sets, the R8 series excluded, have a floating
output, and if one leg is taken to ground by the following device, it
will fry the ouput of the Drake."

So basically, I'm just seeking to make sure that the instruction
manual's caution is not applicable to the following said radios:
'2010, 'SW77, E1


If you are connecting the radio to an external passive speaker you just
have an external isolated voice coil in the speaker and so you just
connect the two wires from the radio using the appropriate plug. Most
speakers are 4 to 8 ohms impedance and most tabletop to large portable
radios have enough power to drive a bookshelf size speaker.

It's not a passive speaker. Sorry, I should have specified.

Headphones
are a better candidate for a small portable.


Yes, I agree by and large; that's why I've never bothered to hook these
up to an external speaker. The filter options on the VRC are pretty
decent, though. Since I've recently taken this speaker out to use with
an R8B, I thought why not give it a go with some other radios.

junius