OBSERVATIONS FROM SCOTLAND                            28 May 2008                                GM1SXX

Some you win.... some you lose!

Re my last posting about my 'new' FT101EE.  I did a lot of work on this radio, refurbishing it and generally tidying it up. This even extended to a strip down of the cabinet and surround and a re-spray using grey primer followed by several coats of Ford Polaris Grey.

The transceiver had a faulty fuse lamp. This is a simple form of static-protection using a low wattage dial lamp in series with the antenna connection.  Once replaced, the receiver worked fine. The transmit side was a different matter. It worked initially but developed a fault in the driver stage which led to the destruction of a feed resistor in the HT supply to the 12BY7A.   The fault was traced to a switch wafer in the bandswitch.  For anyone who has ever worked on these radios, the bandswitch is one area you'd rather not get involved with. It can't really be disassembled for repair... at least not by any means I know of.  When I disconnected the connections to the switch (by clipping them) it measured 250R to ground... hence the rapid destruction of the feed resistor!

The switch wafer affected was buried in rather an inaccessible spot and I decided against trying to repair the radio. Instead, I turned it into a sizeable collection of spare parts including two good (rare) PA valves I can use as spares for my Yaesu twins.  I saved all of the modules... many are used in the twins, plus the major power supply components. The freshly refurbished cabinet went to my FL-101 (a perfect fit) and while I was at it, I stripped and refurbished my FR101 receiver, re-spraying the cabinet to match the TX.

The mains transformer, HV capacitors  and valve bases have been saved for a project I have in mind.

Some you win, some you lose.  Buying an old radio is always a risk. Most can be restored but sometimes it's just not worth the effort. I'm sad to 'lose' the radio but happy to have enough spare parts to keep my 'twins' going.   Overall it was still a rewarding experience.   I don't consider this radio to be a failure. I SHOULD have checked out the TX strip more thoroughly before applying power. The fact that I have a load of useful spares and a set of Yaesu Twins that look like new are reward enough for me.

73 Al.
GM1SXX