page_title: R. L. Drake Company
section_title: Long wave, medium wave, and high frequency (HF) equipment
hierarchical_section_title: R. L. Drake Company / Amateur radio products / Long wave, medium wave, and high frequency (HF) equipment
caption_attribution_description: English: R. L. Drake model R-4B receiver
context_page_description: The R. L. Drake Company is a manufacturer of electronic communications equipment located in Springboro, Ohio. It is also known for its line of equipment for amateur radio and shortwave listening, built in the 1950s through the 1980s. The company operates as a separate entity owned by Blonder Tongue Laboratories, Inc.
context_section_description: The Drake 1A receiver was the company's first meant specifically for radio amateurs.  Introduced in 1957, it was revolutionary in at least two ways.  First, it was much smaller than most receivers of the time period.  The design emphasized simplicity and ease of operation.  Second, it was designed specifically for reception of the relatively new and increasingly popular single sideband (SSB) mode of voice transmission.
  
  In 1959 they followed the 1A with the 2A, a more traditional looking receiver that was a bit larger but still much more compact than its contemporaries.  The 2A had more features, increased sensitivity and selectivity, and was introduced at the same price as the 1A.  It was followed two years later by the 2B, very similar in appearance but with improved performance and a new set of controls for adjusting the selectivity (bandwidth) and center frequency.
  Rather than produce a transmitter to match the 2B, Drake designed a new line of equipment beginning with an SSB transceiver, the TR-3, in 1963.  Again emphasizing size efficiency, the TR-3 was designed as a complete SSB station in a small package.  Other design innovations included crystal bandwidth filters and a permeability tuned oscillator (PTO) capable of extremely linear, stable tuning and a dial resolution of better than 1 kHz across all amateur HF (shortwave) bands.  Its size was so small, in part, because the power supply was in a separate chassis, connected to the transceiver with a multi-conductor cable.  The AC-3 power supply could be installed inside a matching speaker cabinet, later designated the MS-4.  An optional remote VFO (PTO), the RV-3 could be added to the system to enable split frequency operation (i.e., transmitting on a frequency different from the receiving frequency).  The RV-3 (and, later, the RV-4) also contained a speaker.
  Beginning with the TR-3, Drake adopted a scheme for illuminating tuning dials and panel meters on its equipment using small incandescent bulbs behind greenish-blue transparent plastic filters.  This lighting color became one of the most recognizable and distinguishing features of Drake radios.
  The TR-3 was superseded by several versions of the TR-4, ending with the TR-4C and its variants in 1978.  The TR-6, covering the 50 MHz (6-meter) amateur band, was also introduced in 1968 and was produced for about six years.
  Because of their small size, the Drake transceivers were widely used for mobile operation, along with the DC-3 or DC-4 power supplies.
  In 1965, Drake introduced the matching T-4X transmitter and R-4 receiver. The "4-Line" twins satisfied a desire for high performance, operational flexibility and a set of features not possible to squeeze into the TR-4's small size.  The matching units used the same PTO technology as the TR-4, and were capable of transceive operation using either the receiver's or the transmitter's PTO to control the operating frequency. Drake introduced the T-4 "reciter" which was a transmitter add on for the R4 series receivers (it had no PTO of its own and used the PTO and other signals from the R4 receiver to generate the transmit signal), making them a two piece "transceiver", but it saw limited sales and is a rare item on the used ham gear lists these days.
  
  The 4-Line continued to be improved through ‘A’ and ‘B’ versions, and underwent a significant receiver redesign when the “C-Line” came out in 1973.  The T-4XC transmitter and R-4C receiver employed a few more solid state devices but were still primarily vacuum tube designs.
  Along with transceivers and separates, the 4-Line included a set of matching accessories including the L-4 linear amplifier, C-4 control console, W-4 and WV-4 power meters, transmit and receive converters for the 50 MHz (6 meter) and 144 MHz (2 meter) bands, and antenna impedance matching networks (tuners), the MN-4 and MN-2000.
  Midway through the 4-Line's run, in 1967, Drake introduced a receiver and transmitter pair meant for the Novice licensee - the 2-C receiver and 2-NT transmitter.  The 2-C was an improved receiver based on the 2-B design using a f
caption: Drake R-4B receiver circa 1971
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