Vintage 70cm rig?

[Alan Bain]

Are there any interesting vintage 70cm SSB/multimode rigs out there? I've got a FT221R for 2m with the Mutek front end which I class as interesting (and also useable) which works as a 2m IF but I've got a need for a 70cm IF and much prefer interesting vintage (even in need of repair vintage) over black-box. Most of the older ones I can think of are FM only.

Alan

[Radio Wrangler]

There were Mizuho and Totsuko branded CW/SSB portables. They were VCXO based and most usually for 2m but I believe there were 70cm variants as well.

If you're transverting, there's no need for much output power.

David

[SiriusHardware]

Would the FT790R / FT790R2 be too modern for you? (I'm not offering one, just suggesting that you might want to consider one of those).

[Jon_G4MDC]

IC402 for SSB/CW but no FM on that one.

[G6Tanuki]

Does it have to be a standalone radio, given that you already have a decent 2M one?

There was a design in Elektor in the very-early 80s for a 70cm transverter;

https://www.elektormagazine.com/maga...r-200705/18512

can't remember if it had a 2M or 10M IF but I built it and it was rather good. Shame the same couldn't have been said for the 70cm band-occupancy back then! I think I only made a few dozen contacts using it, though one of them was from Mid Wales to Ireland using only a couple of Watts.

[g4wim_tim]

How about a Trio (Kenwood?) TR-9500 ?

I have both the TR9000 (144MHz) and 9500 (432MHz), both are multimode and built well. Over 40 years old now and still going well.

[Alan Bain]

Interestingly the FT790 is the only one I could think of - I used a FT290 in similar service (on 2m) in the past and apart from the LCD display it worked well. Thanks for some interesting other options incl TS9500 and IC402 will do more looking!

[Jon_G4MDC]

May we understand what you would like it to do?

I guessed at perhaps 23cm.

Then I thought I recalled that the IC402 was popular for use as a 10GHz IF rig.

[PA3DAF, Erwin]

Belcom liner 70A or the almost indentical LS707?

[Mark the Spark]

Hi,

Kenwood TRIO TS770-780

Look on Rigpix

Thanks

Mark

[Alan Bain]

Originally Posted by Jon_G4MDC

May we understand what you would like it to do?

I guessed at perhaps 23cm.

Then I thought I recalled that the IC402 was popular for use as a 10GHz IF rig.

I built a 10GHz transverter and while it seems to work on my signal generators, probably actually need to try it with a radio. The original plan was to go from 2m, but filtering issues suggest 70cm is a better bet. But I don't like black box radios at all

[Oldmadham]

Originally Posted by Alan Bain

Are there any interesting vintage 70cm SSB/multimode rigs out there? I've got a FT221R for 2m with the Mutek front end which I class as interesting (and also useable) which works as a 2m IF but I've got a need for a 70cm IF and much prefer interesting vintage (even in need of repair vintage) over black-box. Most of the older ones I can think of are FM only.

Alan

Icom IC490 is a fairly "vintage-ish" all mode 70cm radio, dating from the early 1980s.

[Alan Bain]

Thanks for all the helpful input - after examining some service manuals I bought a TR-9500 which looks full of nice discrete transistors and an LED display rather than a hard to replace LCD. The PA is a block but imagine I will bypass this as there seems little point generating power only to dissipate in dummy load resistors!

[g4wim_tim]

Good choice and easy to work on. Mine is still going strong even after 40+ years,

[Alan Bain]

Is there any chance you could take a picture of the DC power plug? I don't have one and I cannot identify what it should be from the socket on the rig. The service manual tells me it is an E30-1609-5 which doesn't leave me much the wiser.

[g4wim_tim]

Hope this helps.

Regards Tim

[G6Tanuki]

Not sure what they are called but I have a very similar looking connector on the 12V lead for my portable cool box I use to keep beer cool in the summerhouse.

[Alan Bain]

That's very helpful. I don't recognise but it looks like the sort of thing that might be found on the back of a CB radio, so will do some photo hunting.

Running off two crocodile clip leads the tuning display is now working again (corroded via was to blame). Repair would have been much easier had there not been some very poor capacitor replacement work done previously. If each and every time a capacitor is desoldered the tracks lift, isn't it obvious that the desoldering method is wrong?

[G6fylneil]

It looks like CB connector to me, I'm away from home so I can't check.

[old radio man]

Have you thought about the Icom IC-451 a 70cm all mode radio? I'm looking for one myself, I have the IC-251 the 2Mtr version and the IC-551 the 6Mtr version, both work very well indeed, but interestingly although all three look identical the IC-551 6Mtr has a very different internal build, the 6Mtr IC-551 also requires an additional optional module for FM, (which luckily I have), whereas on the 2Mtr & 70mm versions it's a part of the main build, but all three radios work very well, particularly if you're lucky enough to have the 2Mtr mu-Tec front-end board like me.

Good luck with your search, Pete.