Yaesu FT 101-EE problems.

[King Mudduck]

I guess this the correct place to ask this.

I have sold one of my FT's but i kept the nicest one to use. The only problem is i cant get the thing of frequency. I have tuned this as per instructions provided in the owners manual but it still is off. A lot of times when i can get the radio to transmit on freq ( 27.165, no ticket yet ) the receive is is off by 4 khz ( 27.161 ). I'm thinking it may need a complete realignment or it may be something im doing wrong.

Does anyone know of a very good tech that i can send this radio to that is reasonably close to North Carolina? Thanks!

 

[Happy_Hamer]

http://www.8541electronics.com/

 

[King Mudduck]

Thanks but after reading there site they dont repair anything with tube's.

 

[AudioShockwav]

Tx And Rx should be lined up with the Clarifier set in the off position, if not you can adjust the "ZERO" VR(VR-4) that is located on PB-1314-A.
(this is VR 3 on models with the PB5147 board)
This is the regulator board next to the Final output section in the radio, in between the power supply and the "box" The 6JS6C tubes are mounted in.
It will have a tag in front of it that says "ZERO"

Also:
The Clarifier should be the same when turned off and when set to the number 0
If not , it can be adjusted with the VR that is right under the clarifier on the bottom of the radio, VR-4.
you have to pull the cover off to see it.

73
Jeff

 

[AudioShockwav]

And I know I don`t need to tell you this....but I will anyway
Always use extreme caution when working an a Radio with the covers off
THERE ARE LETHAL VOLTAGES INSIDE!!!
This is REALLY IMPORTANT WHEN WORKING IN THE OUTPUT SECTION OF THE RADIO!!

73
Jeff

 

[Happy_Hamer]

Call Richard JR. at 8541 Electronics, tell him you need help and you got his info from here. Tell him you live near him and just want someone to fix it up, hes a good guy

 

[King Mudduck]

This makes no since to me at all. The radio now hears great...its on frequency....clarfier is straight up....out put power is 150+....bias is set per manual...everything is tuned as it should be but no one can understand me!! A friend of mine.....on 3 different radios all of em are spot on freq and he cant understand me and neither can anyone out in dx land. How can a radio show that it is transmitting of freq still be off some how? I am SO pissed off right now i'm at the point of using this !@$&* for target practice!


I GIVE UP!!!!!

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

Why is that they cannot understand you? Is the signal distorted? 150 watts from a pair of 6JS6's is about 50 watts too much for good linearity especially on 10/11m where that rig should put out about 80-100 watts tops.

 

[AudioShockwav]

Reduce the Mic Gain to bring the power output down to about 50 watts, and have your friend listen, if all sounds ok, then you can increase the Mic gain untill he starts to hear distortion, then back off a little bit.
Do not exceed about 250 MA on 11 meters on ssb.

Don`t get hung up on the watt meter, run the radio were it sounds good.
Do you have the Processor turned on?
If so try it with it off.
Do you see a dip in the IC meter when tuning the plate control?
And the Dip should rise evenly, and smoothly on both sides of the lowest point, if not you need to follow the neutralizing instructions in the manual.
And look to see if the tubes have been replaced. The Toshiba or NEC tubes supplied with the 101`s (typicaly with a solid green stripe around the bottom of the tube) are not the same as the USA counter-parts, like GE or RCA. They require that you change C125, a 100 pf 1000 VDC mica capacitor with a 10 pf 1000 VDC mica capacitor. This capacitor is in series with the 10 pf variable neutralizing capacitor off of the plate circuit.
Then open the variable neutralizing capacitor all the way to minimum engagement and follow the neutralizing instructions in the manual.
A on-line service manual can be found here

www.foxtango.org/Manuals/FT-101_SVC_Manual.pdf
This is the how to book on your 101, with tons of info.
Don`t start shooting at it yet.....take a deep breath.... 8)

73
Jeff

 

[King Mudduck]

Why is that they cannot understand you? Is the signal distorted? 150 watts from a pair of 6JS6's is about 50 watts too much for good linearity especially on 10/11m where that rig should put out about 80-100 watts tops.

Since i have had this radio it has always produced this amount of power as did my other 101 and they both got great reports on ssb no matter if the person was 1 mile or a 2000 miles away. The only way that they would do less power is if i detuned them. Tuning "by the Book" would produce 175 watts on ssb and a little over 125 on AM. And i have never turner the key higher than 30 watts because from what i have read on these radios it would blow the tube.

Don`t get hung up on the watt meter, run the radio were it sounds good.
Do you have the Processor turned on?
If so try it with it off.
Do you see a dip in the IC meter when tuning the plate control?
And the Dip should rise evenly, and smoothly on both sides of the lowest point, if not you need to follow the neutralizing instructions in the manual.
And look to see if the tubes have been replaced. The Toshiba or NEC tubes supplied with the 101`s (typicaly with a solid green stripe around the bottom of the tube) are not the same as the USA counter-parts, like GE or RCA. They require that you change C125, a 100 pf 1000 VDC mica capacitor with a 10 pf 1000 VDC mica capacitor. This capacitor is in series with the 10 pf variable neutralizing capacitor off of the plate circuit.
Then open the variable neutralizing capacitor all the way to minimum engagement and follow the neutralizing instructions in the manual.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today after work i will do all of this once more but as i have said before i have tuned this thing by the book and up until the last few days i have not had any problems with it. Thanks for the help on this one, i appreciate it greatly!

 

[King Mudduck]

I think i should have made my self a little more clear but i was so frustrated at this thing i forgot to mention it. The radio sounds great on side band it's just that even though the freq counter shows ( 2 different ones i might add ) 27.385 and receives others clearly my friend or anyone else can only hearme loud and clear on 27.381 :shock:

That was the point i was trying to make and because of my anger i failed to do so, sorry. I just cant understand how a radio that shows to be transmitting and receiving on 27.385 be heard clearly only on 27.381?

One of the radios he used to listen to me was an Icom 706 the others were a HR 2510 and a RCI 2995 all of which are spot on.

Hope this clears thing up a bit!

 

[SR385]

That was the point i was trying to make and because of my anger i failed to do so, sorry. I just cant understand how a radio that shows to be transmitting and receiving on 27.385 be heard clearly only on 27.381?

O.k. so when this is going on, if you leave your VFO alone and they then transmit at 27.381, are you zeroed to them?

Have them talk, zero them, and respond, are you clear to them at that point...regardless of what your readout is saying?

Also, you are allowing for warmup right? These rigs drift all over even when warm but they are particularly bad when you first fire them up.

 

[AudioShockwav]

The radio sounds great on side band it's just that even though the freq counter shows ( 2 different ones i might add ) 27.385 and receives others clearly my friend or anyone else can only hearme loud and clear on 27.381

Ok, what kind of freq counter are you using, what mode are you reading the frequency on and were are you picking up the signal to read the frequency.
It still sounds to me like the TX and RX are not lined up.
and this is an easy adjustment with the "ZERO" control as listed above
A lot of us...ah ,well ok, Old timers ran our 101`s with no freq counter, that was more than we had.
Even when I got a Yaesu frequency counter, it still had a CAL knob on the display to adjust the readout frequency.
Often we would spot the RX with the 25Khz calibrator, and line the TX up with the help of a fellow operator on the air, by tweaking the zero control.

These rigs drift all over even when warm but they are particularly bad when you first fire them up.

Yes they will drift untill warmed up, but they are very solid once they are warmed up. I have owned 3 different 101`s, two B models and a E that I still have, and after you allow them to warm up, there should be no problem with them drifting once set on frequency....nothing like the Siltronix 10/11 D(drifter) I used.

Anyway, tell us how you are reading the frequency, and lets go from there.

73
Jeff

 

[King Mudduck]

Question.

I'm not sure how to answer this.....

"what mode are you reading the frequency on and were are you picking up the signal to read the frequency"

I'm using 2 different frequency counter's that are both 6 digit...both are the kind that you screw the coax from the radio into then out to the antenna and can be found at any cb shop.....yeah i know but that's all i can find around here.

What do you mean by mode?

In the past i did what you talked about and set it by listening to people and then once i had them clearly i could usually talk to them with little problems. This problem has just started in the past few weeks.

I think i will just leave it alone until the weekend. That way i will have more time to mess with it. Thanks for the help!

 

[AudioShockwav]

OK, The type of counter you are talking about requires that you key the radio in AM mode, with No Audio to read properly. You are reading the AM carrier frequency. Remember that SSB is offset from the carrier. Upper sideband, and Lower sideband.
Most likely if you try to read frequency with that type of counter on SSB it goes crazy, that is because it is adding the audio frequencys to the rf going into it, jumping all over the place.
You would be better off to simply tune to your friend,have him set on 27.365 ( or what ever frequency you decide)and dial the Tx untill he tells you that you are spot on. It might help to get him on the phone at the same time, that way you can hear the adjustments that you are making via the phone.
Then when the TX is were it should be, set the clarifier control to OFF, and let him start talking....adjust The ZERO control untill you hear him on frequency in the RX. Now you have RX and TX in the same spot.
What VR-4 does is adjust the regulated voltage that goes to the claifier control that is used to offset the frequency +/- 3 Khz each side of the TX frequency.This IS how you line the TX and RX up on this radio.
Why this has changed just recently is kind of a puzzle, you might have a cap drying out somewhere, or some other part in the chain that has changed value due to age.
If you are not able to adjust the RX to spec with the above instructions, then further trouble shooting will need to be done.

The 101 Radios are simple, they are built to allow the operator to do a lot of trouble shooting on them with what is built into the radio.
There was no frequency counter....because you do not necessarly need it to operate the radio.
they were not hung up on " being on frequency"....just being able to hear each other if the radio is adjusted properly.
And remember that Ham Radio frequencies are not "channel bound" that is , you do not have to be on XX.385 to be right on frequency, we talk all over the place.
The link I posted above to the Service Manual is really a great link, it provides a ton of info on how these radios work, and how to keep them running.

73
Jeff