THE DRAKE TR-4 IS BACK

After what seems like a year, my TR-4 is home and working. I have made several contacts on 80m and 20m. However, I can't get any power out on 10m. I am not sure what is wrong. Today, the band conditions were excellent. I heard Guatemala, Germany, and Bermuda but contacted none of them. Even a man in Texas did not hear me. The S meter needle does not move very much either. The power needle on my tuner goes to 300 W when I am tuning (of CW setting) but when I change to SSB, it does not deflect when I speak. I need to talk with Paul and see if he has any ideas.

MY DRAKE TR-4

A few months ago, Paul, WB0CJB contacted me on the local repeater and offered to help me restore my Drake TR-4 to working order! Paul is a very enthusiastic Drake owner. He has a TR-4C but without the noise banker. He has really had a lot of fun working on my radio. Several Saturday afternoons I went to his home to work on the radio. After just a little work, I knew that I had a great chance of getting back on HF. The most expensive part of the project was parts for the power supply. Paul made many contacts to check things out. I had 1 QSO with a man in Canada. When I got home, I signed up for eCards and got my first card in a very long time.

Today, I got my TR-4 home! I am the proud owner of a functioning Drake TR-4!! I will have to wait until mid January to host an antenna party to figure out the best setup for my situation. I am so excited! It will be hard to wait.

PADUCAH DAYS

In 1990, I moved to Paducah, KY. For a couple of years, I did not have time for Amateur Radio. The exception was the time I was in Officer's Basic Training. I was stationed first at Fort Monmouth and then Fort Dix, both in New Jersey. While there I worked in their MARS stations every weekend. We placed thousands of phone patch call for our troops stationed in Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War.

Back in Paducah, I finally had a large yard but small house. With 3 kids, room was very limited. I finally installed the station in an un-insulated, un-air conditioned, and un-heated detached garage. I had enough room for a half-wave 80 meter antenna. I used a balanced feed-line into an MFJ tuner. I also had a great ground system. I dug a square hole about 1 foot deep, drove in 9 ground rods, and interconnected them with copper strap.

The only issue was that my power supply was already old and the oil filled capacitors had deteriorated. There was so much AC noise that it was next to impossible to hear anyone. Over the next 8 years, I did make a lot of contacts. However, I did not take any pictures or save the few QSL cards I received. Although I did join the local club, I did not get involved. I lived too far from the repeated and my HT could not get into it so did not operate on 2 meters.