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Vintage Amateur and Military Radio Amateur/military receivers and transmitters, morse, and any other related vintage comms equipment. |
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9th Jul 2019, 3:59 pm | #1 |
Heptode
Join Date: May 2014
Location: Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 998
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I've just been offered...
A fully valves yaesu FTDX500 RADIO AND vfo which needs renovating. I need to collect it but I'm quite excited about the project
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David, G4YVM. |
9th Jul 2019, 4:11 pm | #2 |
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Re: I've just been offered...
Don't get too excited. They run a pair of American TV 'Sweep Toobs" to an optimistic 200W
They weren't terribly reliable back in the day and you may have a lot of things to do in the HV department to keep it running. An interesting set from late days of the valve era, sporting a few transistors. Yaesu later went to 6146 devices... in trios in the FT102. I think you've got an interesting set, but probably hard work to keep going. David
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Can't afford the volcanic island yet, but the plans for my monorail and the goons' uniforms are done |
9th Jul 2019, 5:06 pm | #3 |
Heptode
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Newmarket, Suffolk, UK.
Posts: 613
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Re: I've just been offered...
Interesting comments
I ran the Yaesu equivalent, the FTDX560, back when it was a nearly new rig for some years and never had a single problem. Good and solid but of course the "500" is watts input! I'm sure the smoothing caps will need renewing by now but would not expect too many other problems 73 Fred G4BWP |
10th Jul 2019, 6:03 pm | #4 |
Heptode
Join Date: May 2014
Location: Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK.
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Re: I've just been offered...
Thanks.both.
Yes I understood the watts to be input, like the KW Atlanta. Fingers crossed anyway
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David, G4YVM. |
10th Jul 2019, 6:32 pm | #5 |
Dekatron
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Location: Wigan, Greater Manchester, UK.
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Re: I've just been offered...
Speech processing was very often used with rigs when these were new, that must have given those output valves a hard time reducing their life.
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Frank |
10th Jul 2019, 8:13 pm | #6 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
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Re: I've just been offered...
Old Japanese ham-gear can be fun, but it's also likely to have a lot of elusive and annoying faults!
I've seen a few early Yaesu/Sommerkamp FT101s that have major heat-related issues (part-carbonised-round-valve-siocket PCBs for example, which are pretty much impossible to fix) and many of them have an equivalent to "that capacitor" between the driver and PA valves which if it fails can destroy the PA valves, the HT rectifiers and the mains-transformer in a flash (literally!). They've often also been "got at" by either the CB crowd or people trying to get it to work on 6.6MHz - if you're lucky such modifications can be reversed but I've seen quite a few where the workmanship was definitely "It was Stevie Wonder, on board a ship in a storm, with a blowlamp" quality. Finally, PA valves - the "TV Sweep Tubes" were generally matched-pairs/trios and not all manufacturers' versions had the same inter-electrode capacitance (remember these were never designed for RF use) so with some brands even if they're matched you can't get them to neutralise in some radios. |
10th Jul 2019, 8:49 pm | #7 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jun 2016
Location: London, UK.
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Re: I've just been offered...
Quote:
Some people should have been born without hands. |
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11th Jul 2019, 11:01 am | #8 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Wigan, Greater Manchester, UK.
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Re: I've just been offered...
In the 80’s I bought a second hand FT101ZD, it worked very well, never had the covers of it but was sold by a respected radio shop, presume it was original or had been correctly repaired. That used 6146B finals if I remember correctly.
Had it few years and sold it on.
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Frank |
11th Jul 2019, 11:29 am | #9 |
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Re: I've just been offered...
The 101ZD isn't a descendent of the rest of the 101 series, it's a derivative of the FT901DM, which gave it a flying start. Other than an unobtainable counter chip, they are an easily repairable radio.
Back in the days of the original FT101, licence powers were in input watts, with SSB as the newcomer getting PEP. The cluedo misquote I've used for years is "It was the Marx brothers, in the kitchen, with the blowlamp" David My favourite Marx joke: Vendor: "Do you want to buy some pornography?" Groucho:: "No thanks, I ain't got a pornograph."
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Can't afford the volcanic island yet, but the plans for my monorail and the goons' uniforms are done |
12th Jul 2019, 8:42 am | #10 | |
Triode
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: Les Salles Lavauguyon, France
Posts: 43
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Re: I've just been offered...
Quote:
Indeed, RF processing was common and effective, reasonably safe bet that the valves in the subject radio are at least fairly hammered and possibly completely shot. A bit of a challenge. R. |
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12th Jul 2019, 8:52 pm | #11 |
Heptode
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Newmarket, Suffolk, UK.
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Re: I've just been offered...
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13th Jul 2019, 9:19 am | #12 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Wigan, Greater Manchester, UK.
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Re: I've just been offered...
I think Harry Leeming G3LLL had a series on Yaesu radio in PW or one of the other radio mags. Worth looking out for those articles, his expertise with Yaesu radio is well known.
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Frank |
13th Jul 2019, 9:56 am | #13 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: W.Butterwick, near Doncaster UK.
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Re: I've just been offered...
Yes, Harry is the man and was Yaesu main dealer. G3LL Holdings?
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G8JET BVWS Archivist and Member V.M.A.R.S |
13th Jul 2019, 10:51 am | #14 |
Pentode
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Roxburghshire, UK.
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Re: I've just been offered...
I seem to recall Harry did an article on converting old Yaesus to 6146Bs in his PW slot a few years back.
Cheers, Colin. |
13th Jul 2019, 1:12 pm | #15 |
Dekatron
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Location: W.Butterwick, near Doncaster UK.
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Re: I've just been offered...
Also, he does answer the email address given in PW.
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G8JET BVWS Archivist and Member V.M.A.R.S |
14th Jul 2019, 9:21 am | #16 | |
Triode
Join Date: Dec 2015
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Re: I've just been offered...
Quote:
R. |
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14th Jul 2019, 8:09 pm | #17 |
Tetrode
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Western Isles of Scotland, UK.
Posts: 52
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Re: I've just been offered...
This rig has found another home, despite the usual time wasters??
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14th Jul 2019, 9:14 pm | #18 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
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Re: I've just been offered...
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