We have offered and sold around 180 of these R8B units on Ebay and have a lot of experience in testing and in verifying proper operation. This particular receiver is used and you see that it is in beautiful original condition. A previous owner has replaced the cheap plastic tuning knob with a beautiful metal knob that both looks nice and works well. Please review our pictures for specifics on cosmetic appearance.
Electronically, we have fully tested this R8B and sensitivity and overall performance are outstanding. We did not detect any issues or shortcomings with the receiver's operation.
The Drake comes with:
The price of the Drake receiver is set at a selling price based on its desirability, condition and availability. The R8B is no longer manufactured, but the receiver is so highly regarded that the selling price on used R8B's have remained at an elevated level due to interest and demand.
Let us talk a little bit about the R8B. This receiver was one of RL Drake's last great offerings to the DXing hobby. Drake began its foray into shortwave receivers with the nice, but modest SW4 receiver. Now 25 years later, Drake brought out the R8 receiver in 1991. It was well received by the market, but did have its shortcomings...some were ergonomic issues and others were functional issues. Eventually Drake introduced the R8A in 1995 and then a couple of years later, they hit the nail on the head with the R8B which was introduced in 1997 and was produced until 2005. Here is a list of improvements of the R8B over the R8:
RL Drake no longer manufactures high end ham and shortwave gear, but their legacy for quality equipment will live on with the likes of the R8B. This receiver has won lots of recognition from various authorities within the DXing community and rightfully so...it is one HOT receiver...offering the benefits of high sensitivity, choices of selectivity, synchronous detection, passband tuning, an effective noise blanker, multiple modes of reception...AM, FM, USB, LSB, CW and RTTY, two VFO's, two clock times (local and universal), choice of antennas from the front, 1,000 presets for memories, and a preamp for the weak signals. The R8B covers Longwave, AM, Mediumwave, Marine, Shortwave, Ham, and CB frequencies. An optional adapter can be purchased to allow the receiver to pick up VHF frequencies.
In Passport's White Paper review of this receiver their final evaluation is that the R8B deserves an overall rating of 5 stars or superb. We will quote from their summary:
"The Drake R8B receiver, a revised version of the now discontinued R8A and R8, offers superior performance for hour-after-hour listening to news, entertainment, and music from afar. It is one of the relatively small number of radios on the market with both selectable sideband synchronous detection and a wide choice of bandwidths--both major pluses in enhancing fidelity. The R8B offers worthy audio quality that can be even more fully appreciated when listening through headphones or a suitable outboard speaker.
The R8B eliminates virtually all our performance and ergonomic concerns about the R8 and R8A. This new and presumably final version combines unusually capable program listening performance with excellent DX capabilities within it's price class. This flexibility, along with attractive pricing, has propelled the Drake R8 series into a position of overwhelming market dominance among world band receivers.
Bottom Line...The sensibly priced Drake R8B is a nicely rounded receiver with nearly everything done the way it should be. It is equipped with five well-chosen bandwidths, selectable-and double-sideband synchronous detection, passband offset, variable notch filtering, and a wealth of other goodies that perform as they should...along with appropriate ergonomics and superior factory service.
While there are other receivers that are a skooch better for program listening or DXing, or have comparable ergonomics, there is no other receiver that does quite so nicely in all three categories, much less at the R8B's price. Little wonder, then, that this is the world's best selling world band tabletop receiver."
Here are some reviews on the R8B in case you really want to research this unit:
https://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/494 (copy and paste link into your internet browser)
This unit works on multiple voltages so can be connected to AC in a variety of other countries other than the USA and Canada.
At this point, we believe that we have given you what info we have on this receiver. Feel free to email with any other questions and we will do my best to try to help out with them. Most questions will likely be with regards to shipping cost. Those buyers living in the USA may use the Ebay calculator for their cost. About $17 of this cost is for the purchase of insurance that is expensive, but necessary. Shipping may be via either USPS parcel post or by FedEx depending on your location and the shipping cost.
Buyers located outside the USA may also use the Ebay calculator. During the past few years, we have shipped to 112 countries the past 24 years on Ebay and we are happy to ship this receiver to you. Shipping will be via US Express airmail and insured. Please remember that you may be responsible for all import, customs, duty or VAT fees in accordance with what your country requires if any additional fees may be charged to you.
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