 | "A Family Affair" is the history of Bob Drake and
the company he founded in 1943. It is a journey through the many radios his company
created. And it is a technical resource with page after page of tips, notes and
troubleshooting shortcuts on tube type and solid state radios. |
| There are pictures by the score of the radios, the
manufacturing plant and the people who worked there. What they did and how they did it are
described in detail. And you'll see rare images released outside the company for the
first time. |
| Advertisements from the past are presented for many of the
radios as well as an entire catalog from 1977, a year many consider to be the zenith of
the R.L. Drake Company's prowess. |
| You'll get to know many of the employees, and you'll
experience the delight of college students privileged to spend summers and co-op semesters
working on Drake gear. |
| You'll be a fly on the wall as the engineers design the TR-7
transceiver and will come to understand how difficult it was for Drake to reach and then
maintain its well-deserved reputation for marketing what many consider the best
communications equipment ever made. |
| You'll experience the owners' heartache when they abandoned
the legacy they inherited from Bob Drake. You'll feel the bitter disappointment of
the day when reality could no longer be ignored, the day they boxed up the TR-8 prototype
that would have taken the company into the 1990s. |
| The appendix alone is worth the price of the book. Drake
service gurus Bill Frost and John Kriner share their inside knowledge of TR-4s, R-4s and
TR-7 radios. Independent servicers Jeff Covelli, WA8SAJ, Al Parker, W8UT and others
identify and eliminate problems with the tube radios. And Wayne Montague, VE3EFJ, an
expert in a variety of Drake tube and solid state gear, contributes invaluable advice. |
| Mods from the public domain are included (did you know you
can increase the average power output of the TR-7 with a simple one-resistor change to the
ALC circuit?) along with information applicable to any rig.
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