Electronics > RF, Microwave, Ham Radio
#58 Flea Market find Yaesu FT-101 repair series
Radio Tech:
--- Quote from: 4cx10000 on July 03, 2016, 08:47:05 pm ---Had both FT-101E and FT-277 but sold them for years back which I sincerely regret. Luckily, still got my line FR-101 and FL-101 in my schack ^-^ Looking forward watching your repair videos :-+
--- End quote ---
I hear that a lot from folks. Seems it is a love/hate relationship with the 101's
Videos coming soon. Spent 2 days shooting now.
--- Quote from: German_EE on July 04, 2016, 08:20:50 pm ---One other point of interest. F.G. Rayer G3OGR who many will remember as a frequent contributor to Practical Wireless (plus many books) was an FT101 owner. He died years ago but his son, Bill, still has his father's equipment arranged along one wall of his office. Many of us, including me, owe F.G. Rayer a tremendous debt as it was his work that got me started in electronics.
--- End quote ---
I remember this name also and have read a bit of his material. Wrote a beginners guide to amateur radio.
Also don't forget about the fictional books he wrote. Thanks for sharing.
AF6LJ:
I've only worked on FT-101, B and E.
Never worked on an EE EX or an F.
These radios came at a critical time in American amateur radio. Companies like Swan, Drake Heath and National, to name a few were resting on their laurels, they had gear that worked and a price point they wanted to keep...
Yaesu and Trio (Kenwood among others like JRC) wanted to get into the American amateur radio market, many of their offerings were marginal, but today are sought after by collectors.
Yaesu in cooperation with Henry Radio made inroads into the American amateur radio market. The first FT-101s came over with 11 meters pre-installed this made for lots of sales to CB'ers (mainly the SSB types) soon the American CB market was flooded with FT-101s. This started something that couldn't be stopped in the very early seventies.
After Yaesu made their splash with the FT-101 (no A E etc) Swan jumped on the band wagon and offered up the Swan 1011 today it is a very rare radio it was like someone at swan arranged a collision between a 270 and a 500C The radio looks like a Swan 500 series radio but has the guts of a Cygnet 270. Swan caught a lot of heat for this move from the ARRL there was a rather nasty editorial in QST, and because of this Swan formed a new company just for it's illegal CB products called Siltronix. Swan said they would no longer produce the 1011 under the Swan name. You are not likely to ever find a swan 1011 they made less than a hundred. Siltronix 1011Bs are rare for some reason and they made hundreds of those. (they were the best of the 1011 series)
Yaesu wasn't the only manufacturer from Japan who made 11 meter capable radios. Kenwood did also My R-599A came with 11 meters and all you had to do was cut a wire in the T-599A to make it transmit on 11 meters. Heathkit in a backhanded sort of way was already on the bandwagon If you had any HW or SB series radio all you needed to do was order up a 404-313 crystal this was used in the SB-310 short wave receiver, that rock would put any piece of HW or SB series ham gear on 11 meters.
Henry radio was also on the CB bandwagon; The Tempo-0ne could be converted to CB and all you had to do was ask the guy at Henry Radio to install the CB crystal.
I bought two T/O parts radios to make a good one, the second one came with not just one but the whole set of 26-28MHZ crystals.
As the seventies progressed you couldn't find a piece of ham gear that wasn't modifiable for 11 meters, many of the manufacturers depended on this to sell radios.
There are three things that seemed to kill the market.
1. the sun spot cycle
2. cheap imports like the Palomar 2400, Cobra DX, Superstar 360 and many more.
3. The No Code License.
All those people who were buying modified ham gear just went and got their ham licenses. In spite of how easy it was to modify a more modern Icom or Kenwood radio.
There is one thing I have noticed you don't have from that day Radio Tech...
A Jonson Messenger 350.
There is a radio that makes the best 10 meter QRP radio with only a little help
If you have them go to Sams Photofact CB series #14.
I have one in that garage that is stock, untouched (except for the coax that went to an HP 8640 sig gen to be used as a VFO.).
Radio Tech:
I have never seen the Swan 1011 or the Siltronics 1011B in real life. Heard of them but like you said, very rare to find.
I agree with what you said about the things that killed the market. Worked at a cb shop part time and got a good look at those crappy radios that you mentioned. Those Cobra DX and superstar/Galaxy seemed to overrun the market. But were the worse design I have ever seen. Very poorly design PLL circuit with adder chips made the thing impossible to produce a clean signal. They will splash harmonics all up and down the band while viewing on a SA. I hated them and refused to work on them.
When the President Lincon (Uniden) brought out the HR2510 my first thoughts were this is a new generation of radio. Very well designed and had a clean signal. I was looking forward to these being the normal future design. But we know these were black listed so we got stuck with the overseas crap here in the US splattering from one end of the band to the other.
I gave up on cb many years ago. Although I probably have over a hundred or so cb radios along with ham radios. I know I have mentioned this before but I still have the first Base cb radio I ever purchased when I was 14 years old. A Midland 13-898B. Works like a charm the last time I tried it. To date I have 5 FT-101’s, 5 mix of 1011C and D’s (Siltronix)
As you have seen most of my collection you are correct. I have sought after a Messenger 350 many times but come back empty handed. I do have a 250 which is a AM only radio. In pretty bad shape but it does work. Will restore it one day. I also have one of the first solid state base radios they produced. Got it while I was working for EF Johnson, cannot remember the model number but will have to look.
I do have the complete set of sams
Thanks for that nice educational post Sue.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[*] Previous page
Go to full version