Drake DSR-1 Communications Receiver

General Notes

The Drake DSR-1 was a lab quality receiver produced in 1971. A rack mounted marine version, the MSR-1, was also produced. It was one of the earlier receivers to employ a digital read out (Nixie tubes) and synthesised PLL tuning - about 10 years before these facilities were built into lower priced amateur or consumer equipment. Four separate knobs are used for tuning covering 10 x mhz, 1 x mhz, 100 khz and 10 x khz and are linked to the corresponding Nixie tubes. An accurate BFO is used to very effectively resolve SSB signals, though the set also caters for ISB (Independent Side Band), with separate output channels for Upper and Lower sidebands on the same frequency.

More details can be found from the link to the Drake Museum DSR-1 web site. The set is considerably smaller and lighter than comparable earlier valve sets being only 33 x 14 x 29 cms and weighing 7.7 kg.

It is interesting to note that this must be one of the few vintage radios where original manuals were still available from the manufacturer in 2002 and at a price lower than web sites selling photo-copies!

This set is very rare in both the US and Australia unlike British sourced quality radios such as the RA17 series. This particular set has serial #89 so it is either an early build or few were produced.

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Page maintained by Simon Buxton VK2UA . Created: 10/02/02 Updated: 20/08/2007