DRAKE TR7
The TR7 was (and still is) a gem. At the time it came on the market I could not afford it, so I dreamt about owning a Drake when I was older. But now that I am older, they do not make Drakes any more. Fortunately, this used one costed me only 550 Euros including the PS7 power supply. It was somewhat neglected by a previous owner but fully functional and I decided to try and restore it to its full glory. Starting with the main tuning knob which had lost its metal insert and after replacing the fan at the back I worked my way to the innards of the rig. I discovered that some mods had been performed rather hastily, and I brought them all back to the original state using the manual that I had bought from a fellow US ham via eBay. I changed the display to yellow LEDs (kit obtained from Willy, DF4NW) since one of the original red ones had faded, I changed the light bulbs behind the S-meter and the tuning scale for bright white LEDs , I made and installed higher riser feet to tilt the front of the rig and I repainted the cabinet of which the vinyl paint had become sticky and ugly. After quite some hours of work the TR7 started to look as I wanted it to look, like new. On a local auction site I found an MN7 antenna tuner, a speech processor and the original 7077 microphone. I made a sound card interface (for PSK) in Drake style myself and called it the SC7. Later owners mistook it for a mysterious but genuine Drake product, which I regarded as a compliment, hi.
Before restoration....
.... and after.
Note the (larger) yellow display and the bright LED illuminated tuning dial.
The Drake 7 line consisting of the PS7, TR7, MS7, MN7 and SP75 with Drake 7077 microphone.
The SP75 speech processor (top) and a home made “SC7” sound card interface in Drake style (middle) for which I used a cannibalised Drake phone patch housing. Click on the picture to enlarge it in a new window.
The rear of the PS7 with the new fan, I later installed an identical fan on the rear of the TR7.
The last thing a wanted to change in the TR7 was the board with the many pots that control the frequency settings for i.a. AM, CW and SSB. The original board has single turn pots, which makes fine adjustment a trial and error job. Multi-turn pots would make things a lot easier as I had seen on the site of a fellow ham. So I bought the pots and modified the board. So far so good! Adjustment now was a piece of cake, but ....
I was almost finished when it happened. A sharp klick and the TR7 was dead. It came to life again after resetting the PSU but it did not work any longer. I must confess that I said some words that I will not publish here, as the TR7 seemed irrepairable after I found out that a test clip that came loose unexpectedly made a short that blew all of the pin-diodes in the TR7. PIN-diodes come cheap, but man, in the TR7 they are all over the place. It appeared that I would have to take apart most of the TR7 to get them all replaced. The mere thought of that made me sick. After a good night’s sleep I decided to sell the entire line and buy a new rig, really new. I bought a KENWOOD TS-480SAT (please see the Kenwood page).
Although I am very happy with my Kenwood, I still miss my beloved TR7. The TS-480 is -at least in my opinion- better than the TR7, but the Drake boat anchor gave me that intangible feeling that only old rigs can give you, something mysterious, perhaps it is just plain nostalgy. Anyway, the new owner of my TR7 line was quite happy with it and managed to replace all of the PIN-diodes, which took him quite some time. After it was in working order again, he sold it. I was tempted to buy it back but I did not, alas.
This mod was the end of my TR7.... click on the pic to enlarge
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