Who else remembers the film ‘Contact’ released in 1997, featuring Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey as the main protagonists? It was based on a novel of the same name, written by Carl Sagan which was published in 1985; it’s one of my favourite films. Jodie Foster plays Dr. Ellie Arroway who, after years of searching, […]
Yaesu FT-726R Fault 5A AVR Board Fuse Bl...
This is just a quick post regarding a blown 5A fuse on the AVR board in a Yaesu FT-726R. I switched my radio on the other day and it lit up for about a second before everything went dead. I opened the radio and found the 1 1/4″ 5A fuse on the AVR board had […]
Yaesu FT-840 Encoder Fault Repair
The Yaesu FT-840 was, and still is, a very popular ‘shack in a box’ HF radio. The basic specification is: ‘The Yaesu FT-840 is a compact transceiver with up to 100 Watts output power on all HF amateur radio bands in CW, SSB and FM modes, and up to 25 Watts in AM. Dual/triple conversion […]
Yaesu FT101 Mains Connector Wiring for U...
I recently bought an original Yaesu FT101 in an ‘as seen’ condition. There was no accessory socket blanking plug or mains connector supplied with it. WARNING: this information is provided on an ‘as-is’ basis. You undertake the wiring of this socket of your own volition on the understanding that you are competent to do so […]
Last FT-818ND from Yaesu UK stows away i...
All this talk about the Yaesu FT-818ND being ‘end of production’ made me wonder what’s coming next…my guess is it will be a touch screen job to rival the wonderful ICOM IC-705. That’s fine, but it won’t be as slim and compact as the FT-818ND…which of course is the successor to the FT-817ND and original […]
Wideband Modification for your Yaesu FT-...
The FT-817 from Yaesu has been one of the most popular portable QRP radios ever made; the discontinuation of the FT-818, its successor, was announced in early 2023. They give you essentially, a shack in a box. Full HF coverage plus 6m, 2m and 70cm, using all popular operating modes: USB/LSB/CW/AM/FM/Packet/PSK-31/RTTY. Power output is up […]
My Collins KWM-380 is sick
Yesterday I switched on my Collins KWM-380 as I often do. The lights and LEDs came on, the few short beeps emanated from the speaker, but no signals or S meter deflection. No tuning ‘blips’ as the main tuning knob is turned on the megahertz dial either. The volume control gave an increase in hiss […]
Microwave Modules 15dB Attenuator
The Microwave Modules MMT1296 and other transverters, rely on a 15dB attenuator between the transverter and the driver radio for matching. When these transverters were designed, 10W output base and mobile transceivers were the norm. When you buy a second hand transverter, these attenuators are often missing. I had a similar experience and wondered what […]
Kenwood TS-770 V-UHF All Mode Dual Band ...
These are truly excellent radios; well made, reliable and a pleasure to use. In the UK they are marketed by Kenwood, but in other countries they carry the TRIO brand. The TS-770 covers 144 to 146MHz and 430 to 440MHz with around 10w output from SSB, FM and CW modes. They DO NOT have a […]
KW E-Zee Match Lives to Tune Again
These are great little tuners and are designed to provide an improved method of matching between a transmitter output, or a receiver input, to an antenna system. In standard guise they cover from 10 to 80m inclusive, and allow resistive loads from 15 ohms to 5,000 ohms to be matched. Reactive components in the antenna […]