Drake
TR7
Solid-State Blue LED
Fuse Bar Illumination
Drake has used
blue filters since
the days of the 4-Line equipment. This continued into the later
7-Line equipment including the TR7(A) transceiver and R7(A)
receiver. The problem occurs in later years when the blue filters
begin to change and the displays end up looking green. Since the
meter and frequency displays are illuminated by incandescent lamps they
emit a glow that leans toward the red end of the emission
spectrum. Thus a blue filter being back lit by a yellow/red
glowing filament will naturally result in a greenish
illumination. In the past people would replace the blue filters
with newer and perhaps darker blue filters. This was a step in
the right direction, but you are still stuck with a light bulb that
will eventually burn out and require replacement. In the
TR7 transceiver the bulb that illuminates the analog frequency display
requires the removal of the DR-7 digital readout board to access the
bulb. This is not an enjoyable job and has the
potential of damaging the DR-7 or other parts in the radio if
the deinstall and install procedures are not followed closely.
You will often see the analog display dark as the user never bothered
to change a burnt out bulb.
Another problem
area with the 7-Line equipment illumination is that
Drake used small round glass #53 bayonet bulbs. Due to their
small size they can not illuminate the total coverage area of the meter
or analog display evenly. You will have light and dark areas.
To solve both
the aforementioned
shortcomings I have developed a Blue illumination kit to replace the
existing incandescent bulbs provided with the 7-Line
equipment. The kit consists of two custom
manufactured fuse style LED bar lamps. Basically
these bars are the same size as a standard 1/4" D X 1 1/4" L
fuse. The bar holds dual Blue diffused lense
LED's. The LED spacing was designed to provide a wide angle
of light dispersion providing a very even illumination distribution
across the meter or analog frequency display area. Since the
LED's emit a true blue spectrum there is no green affect encountered
with the incandescent bulbs. There is no need to replace
or add additional gel filters.
The life of an
LED is long,
typically 80,000-100,000 hours (almost 10 years of continuous
power), and most of us will never experience it going
out. Once the original lamps are replaced you should never
have to replace them again. You will save on current draw!
The two LED bar lamps only require a total of 30mA whereas the original
#53 lamps have a total of 240mA current draw. That's over 0.2
amps less current draw from the power supply and negligible heat
dissipation from the LED's.
|
Before |
After |
Drake 7-Line Kit
Two Blue LED Bar Lamps
Two Lamp holders with simple clip-on mounts
Extension Wires (If Needed)
Full Installation Instruction Sheet
Simple to Install
Installation is
straight forward
and every attempt was made for ease of installation. Since the
original #53 bulbs and bulb sockets must be removed this kit does
require that the installer must be capable of unsoldering these items
and resoldering the removed wires to the new lamp holders. If
you've never soldered before, please find someone who has experience to
assist you.
An inside view
 |
The bar lamp is
rotatable within
the holder to adjust the intensity of the illumination. Since the
holder is simply held in place via a slide-on clamp it can be moved
horizontally to adjust the illumination angle. Thus no more light
and dark spots that existed with the original incandescent bulbs.
 |
The same flexibility exists for the analog frequency display lamp.
Ordering
All
lamp orders
will ship @ $4.80 (Any Quantity) for USPS Priority Shipment to
U.S.A.
locations. For destinations outside the U.S.A. you have a
choice of
Standard Airmail @ $10.00 USD (1-6 weeks delivery time) or
International Priority Mail at $37.00 USD ($23.00 for Canada/Mexico)
(1-2 weeks Delivery time). Shipment selection is available using
the
on-line PayPal order system below upon final checkout.
or Send Check or Money Order (US Funds Only) to:
D.A. Buska Engineers LLC
4805 64th Avenue
Kenosha, WI
53144 U.S.A.
Include
quanitity
and Part Numbers (see below) with your payments made via standard mail
orders. Don't forget to include postage as described above.
For immediate
processing we
accept payments through PayPal when using the
PayPal Order Cart below. You can change the order quantity if
desired when you view the cart during check out.
| Part Number |
Price
(Ea) |
Range and Radio |
Add to Cart |
| MOD-7LINEKIT |
$19.95 |
Lamp
Kit 7-Line (TR7(A), R7) |
|
| MOD-7LINEIND |
$12.00 |
Single
Lamp Kit (RV7) |
