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Yaesu FT101E bane of the FT-101, the worldwide illegal CB operator

357

Walkin' the dog
Sep 12, 2009
1,403
774
123
50
Chilliwack, BC
www.youtube.com
I ordered my golden screwdriver from China...should be here in a few days.:p


Anyways, any tips on these?
So far I found the plate clips to be extremely loose, 1 was probably arcing to get its voltage..:(

This unit has 11m and I had to cut 1 wire to get it going.

I always thought these were junk but its pretty damn loud on SSB, 120W no sweat. Although I'll be keeping it around 60w pep to be easy on it.
So far I oiled the fan felts, deoxit'd the switches, band selector and pots, set the bias and alc and neutralized to tubes.



photos of how it appeared on CL for $50

00404_e5Ij13KJc8l_1200x900.jpg 01313_dazXss7MC6v_1200x900.jpg 00k0k_d2PmHQWhHHz_1200x900.jpg
 
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1 thing I'm wondering it what to use to clean the board sockets.
I'm cleaning the fingers on the boards with alcohol and that works great.
I have deoxit D5 I was thinking of using on the sockets.
 
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These are good, solid old rigs. Nothing fancy, but a good all around performer. Can't believe you scored one that nice for 50 bucks! Great find!

73,
Brett
 
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1 thing I'm wondering it what to use to clean the board sockets.
I'm cleaning the fingers on the boards with alcohol and that works great.
I have deoxit D5 I was thinking of using on the sockets.
Isopropyl alcohol (the purer the better due to less water/contaminants), or deoxit work great. Be sure to blow some air in there, or let it air out overnight.

73,
Brett
 
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These are great radios. In fact I am doing a Yaesu FT--101 series on YouTube since I own 5 of these radios. Will end up being 15 to 20 videos.
Craig deoxit and IPA is the best cleaners to use on the edge connectors.

Those old Mylar style capacitors soak up moister over the years and the shell splits and fall off. Easy to replace. In fact very easy to repair rigs. They were designed so the service tech only used minimal test gear to repair. The calibrator is connected to the antenna output jack and acts like a signal generator to align and test the receiver.

Watch out for those old mica caps under the bottom. When they go they fail short. Specially the one between driver and final. Also make sure your grids are not drawing current in receive, will eat your tubes up.
 
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These are great radios. In fact I am doing a Yaesu FT--101 series on YouTube since I own 5 of these radios. Will end up being 15 to 20 videos.
Craig deoxit and IPA is the best cleaners to use on the edge connectors.

Those old Mylar style capacitors soak up moister over the years and the shell splits and fall off. Easy to replace. In fact very easy to repair rigs. They were designed so the service tech only used minimal test gear to repair. The calibrator is connected to the antenna output jack and acts like a signal generator to align and test the receiver.

Watch out for those old mica caps under the bottom. When they go they fail short. Specially the one between driver and final. Also make sure your grids are not drawing current in receive, will eat your tubes up.

I have been watching your videos, and they are great. Recently had my 101E gone through a bit, and had quite a few caps and resistors replaced. I'm not able to play radio right now due to a broken heel bone/surgery, but I'm ready to get healed up so I can hook it up and check it out. Used to run it with a D104, and got a lot of compliments on it.

Please keep the videos coming!

73,
Brett
 
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yes I've been watching too, now I went back and watched a few more times.
I hope everything is ok there after that flood.

The radio works good, 120W at tune up.
I'm getting some erratic IC current at lower levels when tuning though, I'm thinking C131-C13? the couplers.
I seen these are a fortune on Ebay right now so I'm not sure if I'll restore it or sell it as is.
 
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I have been watching your videos, and they are great. Recently had my 101E gone through a bit, and had quite a few caps and resistors replaced. I'm not able to play radio right now due to a broken heel bone/surgery, but I'm ready to get healed up so I can hook it up and check it out. Used to run it with a D104, and got a lot of compliments on it.

Please keep the videos coming!

73,
Brett

Thanks Brett,
I have found the D104 does work pretty good with the 101's. I have used amplified and non amplified ones. Sorry to hear about the broken heel. Hope that gets better for you soon so you can get back in radio.

yes I've been watching too, now I went back and watched a few more times.
I hope everything is ok there after that flood.

The radio works good, 120W at tune up.
I'm getting some erratic IC current at lower levels when tuning though, I'm thinking C131-C13? the couplers.
I seen these are a fortune on Ebay right now so I'm not sure if I'll restore it or sell it as is.

Yep, we are ok, I had about 6 grand in damage due to wind. lost part of the roof on the house and bad leak in the radio room in the shop. Nothing I cannot fix. Also lost my Butternut antenna that was tripod mounted on the shop roof. I would replace those capacitors anyway. Also there are some resistors in that circuit that need to be changed out. Don't have the schematic in front of me at the moment but I think I covered it in one of the 101 videos. That 101 you got looks good on the outside and you got it for a deal. That would be a keeper. If you sale it most likely become a parts donor.
Hoping to get back on the videos real soon. Just so much going on here at the moment.
 
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Score! just needs a nice FL-2100B amp sitting next to it. Oh and then the freq counter and watt meter/dummy load. Shoot, your gonna want the ext VFO and don't forget the transverters and on and on and on until it looks like a space shuttle cockpit
 
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