After acquiring an "as new" 50+ year old Drake R-4B serial # in the 15,000 range, in mint condition in early 2025 from Robert, K7CY, I added a rear panel mounted BNC antenna connector in the spare hole next to the RCA antenna connector on the rear panel and added a fixed, line level AF feed across the AF volume control to feed RM Noise, AI noise elimination explained later on this page.
This allows me to listen to AI processed audio from the R-4B or the 7300 at the flip of a switch.
I replaced the two 6.3v panel lights with 2 "magic" LED's and "viola!"
All electrolytic caps had already been replaced.
This newly acquired R-4B is as mint & pristine as the R-4B in a "factory sealed" box that I opened way back in 1972, 53 years ago.
See below - my brand new Drake 4 line way back when I was 22.

Friends from 50+ years ago, now, sadly, all SK.

FOC membership is earned only on the recommendation of other members.

In mid 1971 I became a reservist in the SAP.
From 1971 to early 1977, I had a "ringside seat" to many of the riots and social unrest in the Johannesburg area, the largest city in SA with a population in 1975 of just under 2 million people.
Today, in 2025 it has grown to over 6 million mostly fueled by illegal immigration from Africa and Asia.
The total population of SA in the mid 70's was almost 27 million.
The total population today in 2025 has grown to over 62 million.
The SA riots of early 1976 were the last straw and after almost 21 years in SA, sadly, with a wife and 2 very young children, at the age of 27, it was time to leave South Africa.
I had grown tired of constantly having to carry my 9mm automatic with 12 in the clip and one in the chamber.
I bought the Browning brand new in 1970 and sold it in 1977 for 8 times what I originally paid for it 7 years earlier.
A condition of the sale was that the new owner would take possession of the weapon from me at the airport just before I went through passport exit control on my way out of SA.
Unlike Canada and the USA where you leave either country by simply arriving in the other country at a port of entry, in SA you have to go through passport control in order to exit the country.
As an "amper tweetaalige rooinek" it was time to say . . . .
"Tot siens Suid Afrika, baie dankie en alles van die beste"
_________________
In 1973, I had a chance 20m short path QSO with Murray Epstein, VE2AUU, a pioneer in & the father of the automatic radio paging & voicemail industry in Canada.
After several follow-up QSOs, Murray offered me a management position in his organization based in Montreal.
Murray sponsored my immigration (XYL and 2 kids) to Canada in mid 1977 and so began my introduction to the personal communications business in Canada & the USA.

I sold my half of the business in SA back to Don Rembach in early 1977 & immigrated to Canada in mid 1977.

In 1981, Don Rembach sold the business and with his wife Ursula and 3 sons, Allan, Joel and Michael, immigrated to Australia.
Sadly, Don, his 2 sons, Allan and Joel are now SK RIP. 

I managed Scotcomm Radio from mid 1977 until mid 1979.

Scotcomm Radio was the exclusive Canadian distributer of the NEC line of radio pagers to radio paging operators across Canada including sister company, ScotPage Inc which was co-located with Scotcomm.
Apart from the NEC pager line, Scotcomm also carried VHF / UHF mobile radio and a small live voice, low subscriber capacity, automatic paging system from CTI in the USA.
Two of my technicians at Scotcomm, Nils and Shlomo, VE7CYC and VE7SLO prepared and serviced the CTI terminals, made in the USA, that Scotcomm sold and serviced in Canada.
One day, the 3 of us were at lunch when Nils revealed that he had ideas for a revolutionary "state of the art" high capacity, automatic radio paging and voicemail systems resulting from his frustration with the CTI paging equipment.
Long story short, I approached Murray with the idea but for some unknown reason, he showed little interest.
Faced with that response, the 3 of us resigned and started our own business in the basement of my home about 1km away from Scotcomm.

ScotPage Inc was owned by Murray Epstein, VE2AUU & managed by Claude Everton VE2YI
What followed was a 38 year career in the automatic radio paging & RF communications industry.
We parted ways with Murray in mid 1979. Then, with new partners, VE7CYC & VE7SLO (from SM and 4X4) both of whom also worked at Scotcomm Radio, we started a new company, ECI Electronics Inc, initially in the basement of my home in Montreal, (Laval) involved in the design, manufacturing, marketing & installation of core radio paging & voicemail equipment used by many of the largest radio common carriers in Canada to service their paging clients.
The RNS-3000 was designed by my partner, Nils Eriksson, VE7CYC, who originally worked for LM Ericsson in Sweden.
At 12 noon sharp, Monday to Friday, Nils and I would go to our regular local restaurant for lunch.
The general concept of what would become the RNS-3000 automatic paging and voicemail system was laid out on the back of several lunch napkins and listed all of the features that were needed in both hardware & software to make a truly "state of the art" product for the RCC industry.
The RNS-3000 was named after the 3 partners, Ray, Nils & Shlomo.
ECI Electronics Inc, later expanded to 6 people and conducted manufacturing operations in a 4,000 sq ft facility with sales, service and installations coast to coast in Canada from Newfoundland to British Columbia.
In 1983, at the CRCCA annual convention in Edmonton, Alberta, Glenayre Electronics Inc of Vancouver, BC Canada & Quincy, IL, USA walked up to our booth (picture below) and made a surprise, unsolicited offer to acquire ECI Electronics Inc with the objective of expanding & dominating the automatic radio paging & voicemail market worldwide.
The deal with Glenayre closed a matter of hours before the 1983 Telocator RCC convention opened in Las Vegas, NV.

Before Glenayre's check hit the bank, I was dispatched with great haste to the Glenayre booth at the Telocator annual convention in Las Vegas, NV where the now renamed GL-3000 was introduced to the USA and world automatic radio paging & voicemail market.
It is my understanding that versions of the GL-3000 are in the White House and the Pentagon in Washington, DC.
That was 1983, 42 years ago in 2025.
Of the many people that I met at that convention at the Glenayre booth, the most notable was Henry M Zachs, president of Message Center Beepers Inc., which was headquartered in Hartford, CT.
That meeting would later again change the direction of my life.
The sale to Glenayre took me, my family & partners to Vancouver BC.
VE7 land.
We worked at Glenayre for a short period after the buyout.
For me it was 8 months and for Nils it was about 2 years.
The 2 years at Scotcomm & 8 months at Glenayre was the only time I had worked for somebody else at that point in my life.
Glenayre expanded to over 2,500 employees in Canada, the USA and Asia. Glenayre went public shortly thereafter while selling hundreds of GL-3000 paging and voicemail systems, paging transmitters & related equipment worldwide.
The GL-3000 was the re-branded RNS-3000, named for the 3 ECI founding partners and designed by Nils Eriksson, VE7CYC in the basement of my Montreal home in 1979/80.
After Nils retired, he spent a lot of time in Thailand where he had a house on the beach in Pattaya.
After a long illness in Thailand, Nils returned to Vancouver in April 2007 for urgent medical attention. He went from the Vancouver airport directly to hospital where sadly he died a few hours later at just 58 years old. RIP.
Shortly thereafter I applied for & received nationwide 900Mhz spectrum assignments in Canada in my personal name, I incorporated Prime Communications Inc and received 929.4125Mhz & 929.4875Mhz, both nationwide in Canada.
After that, I entered into a cross-border partnership between Prime Communications Inc and a major US nationwide paging operator, Henry M. Zachs, president of Message Center Beepers Inc in Hartford, CT where he operated the same two 929Mhz nationwide radio paging channels that I operated in Canada.
Canada set aside only 3 common USA / Canada 900Mhz paging channels.
Those three common channels were allocated to the "Big 3" nationwide Canadian paging operators.
The amalgamation of Prime Communications Inc and Message Center Beepers Inc effectively increased the number of common USA / Canadian nationwide paging channels from 3 to 5.
The combined Canadian and USA nationwide operations were sold to AirTouch Inc (Northstar Paging Inc in Canada) which later became Verizon which now operates USA / Canada wide paging on 929.4125Mhz & 929.4875Mhz my original two Canadian nationwide paging frequencies.
It was during the sale to AirTouch that I moved to WA State about 300ft south of the Canadian border.
A green card was part of the deal to integrate the 2 systems.
I did not renew the green card since I had already returned to Canada prior to its expiration.
The view from the deck of my home in WA State, facing north, was Vancouver, BC Canada  - see picture at the top and bottom of this page.
Although I had held VE7CY since 1983, I lived in and operated from Point Roberts WA as G4DBO/W7 for several years in the mid 90's.
My Canadian vehicle tag was and still is VE7CY.
My WA State vehicle tag was also VE7CY which really confused CBP and CBSA at the USA Canada border. 

At almost every turn, my amateur radio contacts played a major role in my business life & direction.

Then, in 1998, I returned to Canada permanently, which was only 300 feet to the north.
I, with one of my former ECI partners, Nils Eriksson, VE7CYC, purchased a local paging operation, TeleLink Paging Inc which we later merged with Dial Direct Radio Paging Ltd. The combined operations were eventually sold to PageNet Canada in 2003 together with TeleLink's 931.8375Mhz nationwide channel & subscribers.

By 2002 it became evident to me that the advent of smart cell phones was likely going to decimate the radio paging industry and that is why I sold all of our remaining paging assets including subscribers to PageNet Canada Inc in early 2003 before the bottom fell out.
"The bottom falling out" was an understatement.
The late Kenny Rogers  .....
"Know when to hold them"
"Know when to fold them"

I will be forever grateful for the numerous opportunities afforded me resulting from my 56+ year involvement with so many amateur radio operators.

Both Murray Epstein of Montreal, Quebec and Henry M. Zachs of Hartford, CT were instrumental in guiding my life in the right direction in 1977 and  1992 respectively.
I will be forever grateful to both of them.

I finally retired in 2015 at age 65 & now in 2025 I am enjoying my 5th HF sunspot cycle.

HF Band Noise
If you are reading this, you operate HF.
Eliminate ALL of your HF band noise - CW & SSB!
You will be in a whole new world of "noise free HF"
thanks to Artificial Intelligence.

Above: This is the main screen of RM Noise with AI Filters for SSB & CW.
Follow the filter instructions - SSB: 2.8Khz DSP Filter sharp, NB off NR off.
You can click anywhere on the above audio (CW & SSB) and hear previously received, processed audio up to approx 270 seconds and go back to live audio and miss nothing.

Like all HF radio operators, we have to deal with band noise, QRN and QRM that varies from band to band, season and time of day.
Signal to noise ratio is key to hearing the other station.
If you can't hear them, you can't work them!
Early in February 2024, I came across a fantastic app.
It is AI (Artificial Intelligence) remote audio processing and filtering that removes ALL band noise and leaves you with beautiful, clear, noise free audio whether you are on 80m with an S-9 noise level or 20m with heavy QRN or adjacent station QRM.
This applies to both CW and SSB signals.
You think you are listening to the output of a local FM repeater.
You can even hear signals that are BELOW your band noise floor that you would normally NEVER have heard without this AI app.
Hookup is simple.
Line level audio out from my 7300 ACC socket pin 12 to the LINE input of your Windows PC.
Line level audio can also be taken from the USB line but I preferred not to go that route.
Audio out of your PC to a mixer / headphones / speaker of your choice etc.
Your received audio is sent to one of 3 servers, one in Switzerland and 2 in TX, USA.
These servers are trained to eliminate ALL band noise and return the clean audio to you.
Latency is around 200 - 250 milliseconds from my QTH.
Because of the inherent latency, I use a mixer and feed raw AND filtered audio (L and R channel) with the ability to lower the raw audio once the SSB was tuned properly.
See my article for full details.
You  can also upload your own band noise in a 30 minute file void of any audio other than your band noise, that will be used to train the AI.
I found that my noise vanishes on all HF bands with the existing filters on the servers.
My band noise  level can be as high as S-9 + on 80m -  a  little lower on 40m.
I feed raw unfiltered audio AND filtered audio from the remote server, to my audio mixer.
It REALLY works.
The app's name is "RM Noise"
Search YouTube for many videos.
See a few YouTube videos below.
The website and forum is at https://ournetplace.com/rm-noise/
Download the .exe, install it, activate it and you are entering a whole new world of HF amateur radio.
This app can be used with ANY receiver / transceiver WITHOUT any internal additions or modifications.
After you hear it for the first time, you will wonder how you ever managed with band noise / QRN etc all these years.
See my article here.....
https://forum.rmnoise.radio/viewtopic.php?t=69
This app is the best thing since sliced bread!!
It makes barely audible signals into almost FM quality audio.
You think that you are listening to a local FM repeater output!
It took me less that 15 minutes from download, hookup, installation and validation to listening!
Its all explained on the website under Documentation
Watch the many YouTube videos - search "RM Noise"
The irony is that the author / developer, Randy Williams is apparently not a ham radio operator.
Sadly, Randy's father, Marshall Williams K5QE in TX, became SK in July 2024.
The software and service is currently FREE!!
Did I mention that it really works?
Did I mention that it really works?
Did I mention that it really works?
Did I mention that it really works?
OK OK OK -YES  - it really works!!!
You will have the most fun you have ever had with your clothes on!
Try it, you will love it - guaranteed!!
73 - Enjoy!
BTW, I am currently working on passing audio received from WebSDR (Northern Utah WebSDR) and KiwiSDR systems through RM Noise.

P.S. My thoughts and pet peeve.
The ability to hear the other station is determined by many factors.
These factors include but are not limited to, your local noise floor which varies by band and time of day or night.
By using RM Noise, you eliminate your local noise issue.
That works very well for me.
After being QRT for several years, I discovered remote SDRs etc
The Northern Utah SDR system looked very impressive.
I am now preparing my station to receive audio from a remote SDR, feeding it into RM Noise and experiencing the same kind of band noise elimination.
As they say in the TV adds "But wait, there's more."
I am also now looking at an app called CatSync which would allow my Icom IC-7300 and the remote SDR to track each other in real time.
The 7300 can control the band and frequency of the remote SDR and the remote SDR can control the band and frequency of the 7300.
Bi-directional control but while 80m and 40m might not be an issue whereas from 20m through 10m there is the issue of skip to consider. Stay tuned! 

Below: https://ournetplace.com/rm-noise/

Plenty more
YouTube videos
search "RM Noise"

Pet Peeve!!

There is no such thing as an "antenna tuner" or "auto tuner"
Not inside or outside your transceiver.
Despite what is written in your radio's manual.
This is a most basic explanation.
Just because it is called an ATU does not change the fact that it is NOT an ATU i.e. it does NOT "tune your antenna"
The output of your transceiver is nominally 50 ohms.
It feeds the coax that connects to your antenna.
It is an unbalanced output.
Simply put, there is NOTHING you can do at the shack end of your coax that will change the SWR of the antenna!
NOTHING!
Originally, in the pre World War II era, it was called a "Transmatch"
From that name you can infer that it was an abbreviation for "Transmitter Matching Network"
It "matched" the output of your radio to the impedance of your antenna at the point it connects to your radio and when properly adjusted, presents a purely resistive load to your radio.
The 1:1 SWR read on your meter is NOT the SWR of your antenna.
It is the SWR between the output of the radio (or amplifier) and the INPUT to the transmatch.
Nothing more!
It does NOT change the SWR of the antenna.
Period, end of story.
Below is an example of a transmatch or transmitter matching network from the late 1960's and still in use today, the "Drake MN-2000 Matching Network"
It takes full legal power for the amateur service.
In my station configuration, I use two of them in series but only one is in circuit at a time.
My first MN-2000 was installed 55 years ago and in every station since.
It has never "tuned" any of my antennas.
There are many other "matching networks" or so called ATUs.
Some are T networks, some are L networks and some are Pi networks.
The MN-2000 is a Pi network.
The MN-4 is a smaller, lower power unit
This is the simplest explanation without getting into too much detail.

"Those were the days my friend!"
Mary Hopkin - 1969

Like your D-104?
Have an Icom
7300-9700-7610?
Make your D-104
sound like your Icom
HM-219 hand mike.

No need to spend a lot of money on a Heil ICM etc.
The audio reports you get with this "D-104" will be great!

Certification.

Contests Etc.

Funnies!

And finally, family!!

My primary QTH is in BC, Canada, 20 minutes north of the USA border at Blaine WA, US Interstate 5 goes all the way down through WA, Oregon to San Ysidro, California & the Mexican border.
The horizontal line just above Blaine that cuts through Point Roberts is the USA Canada border, the 49th parallel.
Point Roberts, WA is immediately below the border on the left where I used to live & operated as G4DBO/W7 in the mid 90's. Point Roberts WA is totally surrounded by water on 3 sides and by Canada to the north. The only way to drive from Point Roberts WA to the lower 48 is via Canada.
My Canadian QTH is near Lougheed Highway, Coquitlam BC.
From my QTH to Blaine WA is 30km 20 minutes.
From my QTH to Point Roberts WA is 33km 20 minutes as the speed limit on Highway 17 is higher than Highway 15.
Ignore the 2 hours roundtrip label.
At the time of day that I drive, the traffic is very light - 20 - 30 minutes tops to either Point Roberts or Blaine.
Having a Nexus card in the Nexus lane for border crossing in either direction takes less time than  it takes for a traffic light to change from red to green.
My QTH was just above the "P" in "Point" on the map.
My rig there was a Kenwood TS-950SDX feeding a Kenwood TL-922 amplifier to a TH-3 at 40ft.
The only way to get a Starbucks latte when you live in Point Roberts WA is to drive 2km into Canada.
I did this 15 minute round trip daily USA / Canada / USA and returned to the USA with my Starbucks latte & worked some DX for a few hours sipping my morning latte.
Despite a regular explanation to the same handful of border guards, the US and Canadian border officials could never understand why I was driving a car with a WA State registered vehicle with tag (plate #) VE7CY that day and on the previous day I made the same cross border trip in a (different) BC registered vehicle with tag (plate #) VE7CY.
This interaction continued daily for 3 years despite the fact that I carried a USA CBP issued Nexus card!
Our tax dollars at work!
I returned to Canada to live in 1998 and the WA State plate vehicle became a BC plate vehicle again.
Since I left Point Roberts, WA in 1998, I continued crossing the border for gas (petrol) for the past 26 years since the price is one third cheaper in the USA. For years the same border confusion continued. Finally, after US CBP & Canada's CBSA updated their cross border interconnected computer systems, the problem stopped.
From my new Canadian QTH I now go down BC highway 15 to Blaine WA and Interstate 5 into Blaine, WA for gas and to pickup my latest USA purchase at the UPS Store in Blaine.
Blaine, WA is the beginning of the lower 48.
A 60km (37 mile) round trip and I can be back home in one hour with a gas fill up and parcel pickup.
Another toy!!!
A regular visit to Harbor Freight or Tractor Supply is always fun.
Red Lobster or Ruth's Chris is always a special treat.
Being retired is great!

All coax used
on this page is
Amphenol
RG-213 &
PL-259's

73 Thank you
for visiting.