Items to Sort – Items for Sale!

by MD0MDI
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Yaesu FT-101E

Items to Sort – Items for Sale!

I have been digging out toys that I need to play with, this is going to be a very strange time for me, but I received a phone call from Liverpool, and I have basically been told that I am not going to get much time left this time round, i.e. I’m screwed!

Yaesu FT-101E
Yaesu FT-101E She has had a hard life.
The Photo's do not really show how mucky this is.
The Photo's do not really show how mucky this is.
A Stickered Up Yaesu FT-101E
A Stickered Up Yaesu FT-101E
This Radio has Signs of a Hard Life
This Radio has Signs of a Hard Life

So I have a few things that are creeping up here now, I am looking at kit here that has a history, I know I am a tad soft here but I have never looked at radio as just a bunch of components in a box, I know some of the people that used these old radios, and it means so much to me that I now own a radio that was once used by …

This So needs to be put through the Ultrasonics Cleaner
This So needs to be put through the Ultrasonics Cleaner

Now this is not just a tad dirty this is yucky and mainly the reason that I have not touched it in ages, this is thick with Dirt, Pet Hairs and the firm favourite of Cigarette Smoke.

I was cleaning up stuff under the desk whilst a good friend was here, and after lifting it on to my Lazy Susan we were admiring the age of this radio, and the Power connector was pointed out by my friend, to which I said that I would have a cable for it, and after a few seconds I pulled out the correct lead and he suggested just switching it on as see what was going to happen, so we did, No Variac, No mains Isolation, he just plugged it in and switched it on, and with me expecting to be hit by oily smoke, but thankfully she lit up, No Bang, We had some noise, maybe not the right noise but we had noise.

This Radio is Disgusting!
This Radio is Disgusting!
From the Serial Number she was manufactured by some very strong engineers in 1955.
From the Serial Number she was manufactured by some very strong engineers in 1955.
Where ever you look, it's in a Sad state.
Where ever you look, it's in a Sad state.
Don't you just love Mods!
Don't you just love Mods!

This is just the first item I had picked at random by a friend, and this is why I have to sort out all these items, I knew where the mains lead was for this, and with other items that have manuals and different bits that would need to go with something, I knows where all the items are, but when I am not here, Elaine and Sue would not know what the items are, let alone what goes with it and what they are worth. I am finding this very hard; I know that I cannot leave this to Elaine and Sue to sort out as they do not know what a Keyer is or a SWR Meter is, or the differences between a Tuner and a Antenna Analyser. This is just way too hard…

Take this Yaesu FT-101E, I would have stripped this down to the bare chassis, it would have spent ages in the ultrasonic cleaner until it would come out clean and tidy, after each clean it will be attacked with cotton buds, plastic probes and the constant checking of resistances with a multimeter, and all this before checking each board over and thoroughly testing each every lead and component out, I would enjoy the months of cleaning, the odd swear word when you cut your fingers on something, and even the off puff of smoke, but switching on a cleaned up FT-101E is now something that I am sadly going to miss.

My Old Blue Screened Kenwood.

My Old Faithful Kenwood TS-570D

Often regarded as an average Kenwood, But this radio has never let me down, it has not been switched since 2014, but being the rebel that I am it was attached to power and quickly switched on and half expecting it to give me smoke, but it has been on now for 4 hours while I have been listening to it, it has been a good old radio to me this one, I have used it at Eary Cushlin and even thrown on the back seat of the car when working mobile and it has never let me down. Oh Well another one for the pile.

This Would have Hurt me!

Icom IC-775DSP - First Time Switched on Since 2014
Icom IC-775DSP - First Time Switched on Since 2014, I Love this radio!

This s starting to be a bigger task than I thought that it would be, sorting through the big money items like the radio’s is relatively easy, they are big and bulky, but its all the small stuff, such as the Morse Keys, CAT Controllers which are mostly MicronHam, Panoramic Adapters, SWR and Power Meters, it is all the little things, I had bought a MicroHam for everything I have here, so I have a MicroKeyer 3 with leads for Icom, Elecraft, Kenwood and Ten Ten Radios as I never knew what radio I would be using, but it’s the stories that I carry with each of the radios, this Icom IC-775DSP that I have here was not the radio ordered, I was after a much cheaper radio and had left a message with Martin Lynch to keep an eye out for one, the got back to me and at the time this was way out of my range, but he had made enough out of the filters that originally were fitted to the radio, and I managed to get here for a very nice price. I am glad that I did because she is a monster, The DSP is totally unbeatable, and only now that it can be beaten by the likes of the Yaesu FTDX-10 and 101’s.

But this was my baby, I was once offered a IC-7851 as a straight swap, I think he was joking but I turned him down, the offer was repeated every time that he visited and said that the audio out of this radio was much better than his IC-7851, It will be a very sad day for me if I get to see this radio go.

I can look at items and I instantly know what it cost me, but how would those left behind me know, I mean I have parts for a Mosley Pro-67-C3 spread out all over the house, and I can imagine one person in this house that would just pick parts up, even though they are taped together, and just use it to bodge something basically turning a £3,600 Antenna into just scrap. I have some stackable boxes filled with what would look like just coils of wire and just tip them out, not seeing that they are either Windom or Dipoles made for different bands.

Icom IC-775DSP - First Time Switched on Since 2014
Icom IC-775DSP - I Truly Love This Radio

But getting back to my IC-775DSP, She has now ‘ALL’ of the Internal Filters that you can fit in these old radios, that is 9 Filters that cost a bloody fortune nowadays, I Also got the Rack Mount Handles and the Cable Protectors that are fitted to the rear corners of the Radio, pretty much a godsend, SO I can only start to box things Up and put postal notes on everything, but even seeing these boxes every day will get me down, I doubt anyone will understand but life is just a very low time at present, but when you have a call from the Head of Cancer to which he lets you know that he does not expect you to live beyond 2 months, Life kind of ends, and you have to start putting things in order, sort out a will, and sort out what needs doing to all the crap that you aculeate over the years, and some things are precious that most, I have only a single item that was once my dads and that was his old toolbox that was last touched by him.

The First of the RUB Boxesik382u1

RUB Box, Just 1 of Many
RUB Box, Just 1 of Many
Instructions for some sort of SDR that I cannot remember.
Instructions for some sort of SDR that I cannot remember.

I have to admit that I have an addiction to buying RUB Boxes, this started with making a RUB Stack for the snakes to live in, this was OK but they started to get fat and heavy so they soon out lived them, but at the time B&Q were selling loads of different sizes and very cheap as well so we bought loads every week, this means that I have stacks of boxes that I still have to go through, this lot of rubbish is just from one small RUB box, other ones are a lot more interesting.

MRP-2000 Pre Amplifier, but with Screws Missing, A Bit Dubious.
MRP-2000 Pre Amplifier, but with Screws Missing, A Bit Dubious.

The Isle of Man is a small island basically, we have had over the years a few people that have created items for Ham use, the main one that pops up when you least expect it to around the world is S.E.M. which was based in Castletown in the south of the island, It seems that every Ham around the world has one of his TranZmatch Antenna Tuners in their shacks.

But here is another item that came from his small business, I cannot remember when I got this item, but it’s one of those items that I would do a tear down on at some point.

Moving away from the RUB Box I do have a rather sad looking TranZmatch.

In with the rubbish useful items are hidden such as the Ameritron ARB-704 Buffer.
In with the rubbish useful items are hidden such as the Ameritron ARB-704 Buffer.
I think most Ham shacks will have one of these in a corner somewhere - The S.E.M. TranZmatch.
I think most Ham shacks will have one of these in a corner somewhere - The S.E.M. TranZmatch.

The TranZmatch was a totally handmade item, it was made on the Isle of Man in small batches by Paul Crapper (GD3MXG) who sadly past away at Nobles Hospital on 3rd January 2012, but he certainly put the Isle of Man on the map and made some very useful little products, I cannot remember what exactly he did but everyone must remember seeing his adverts in various radio magazines in the day.

Nowadays when you try searching for any information on Paul or SEM, you can find a few photos but not allot else, I was hoping to find one of his adverts or an old catalogue somewhere, but sadly another good Ham has just vanished.

Yaesu FT-757GX HF Transceiver

I cannot remember what came first, weather it was Kenwood with their cracking TS-50 or Yaesu with the FT-757, but I know that these were very popular back in the day, I cannot remember when I got this, but I think I had a radio sat on the workbench for years, I cannot remember the history of it, but to come across a Boxed Tuner for an item this old is pretty rare these days.

A Boxed Yaesu FC-757AT Full Automatic Antenna Tuner
A Boxed Yaesu FC-757AT Full Automatic Antenna Tuner
Open the Box to find a Mint Manual and a Yaesu Accessory Box.
Open the Box to find a Mint Manual and a Yaesu Accessory Box.
The Pair Together for the first time in ages.
The Pair Together for the first time in ages.

I found the Power lead for the FC-757 in the box but the one for the Radio was not with it (of course), so sorry I could not light it up or catch it smoke when power was applied.

TENTEC Orion I Model 565 HF Transceiver

Ten-Tec Orion I Model 565, Well it Powers Up...BUT!
Ten-Tec Orion I Model 565, Well it Powers Up...BUT!
TenTec Orion I Model 565 Alive but Not Working.
TenTec Orion I Model 565 Alive but Not Working.

Most of this has been good news so far, especially with the Icom IC-775DSP, but it seems, like me, my luck is not that lucky. I managed to find the lead for the Ten Tec and plugged it in, I suppose I was half expecting the normal power up, but I had turned away and on looking back at her I noticed just in time that it was asking a question about whether something was installed in the unit and it was in the middle of being reset, I get audio and it all looks to be fine, except there is no spectrum display,  I am hoping that it will be sorted once I get the manual out from wherever I put it, but for now this is the first dud!

The Speaker Stack...

By the side of the workbench in the office I have a small stack of gear, mostly speakers or tuners just piled up on top of each other. I have always liked having external speakers for a radio, some sounded better with a speaker attached. The Kenwood  though although the speaker is good, it is basically just a speaker in a box, and even the Yaesu SP-102 is Just a Speaker in a Box, and yet they would charge us a small fortune for one of these.                         

Yaesu SP-102 - External Speaker, I wish is was the FT-102

And there is rubbish here too, I got this one back in the 1980’s and it has been with me all along, I was waiting to. Get back into CB but never did, I always wanted to get either an old Ham International Concorde 3 which are now as rare has hens teeth or even a Hygain V as many a year back these were my two radios that I had in my garage back then.

Alan HQ-222 SWR-Power Meter for CB's

My old Yaesu FC-902 Antenna Tuner – This was always my preferred Tuner, if I ever came across an antenna that I just could not get a good tuner to work with it, I could use this tuner to match it, these old Yaesu’s are great bits of it, very underrated like most old stuff but it works.

Yaesu FC-902 Antenna Tuner - This was always my preferred Tuner
Yaesu FC-902 Antenna Tuner - This was always my preferred Tuner

This Tuner has had a hard life and needs a little clean and re-spray, I should at it to the list but I now do not think it will get sorted now, not with the impending doom.

Yaesu FC-902 Antenna Tuner, The Case needs a goos sanding and spraying, but otherwise she is sound.
Yaesu FC-902 Antenna Tuner, The Case needs a goos sanding and spraying, but otherwise she is sound.

Godfrey (GD4EIP) who is a close friend and lives not far from me in Foxdale used to really enjoy putting BHi units inside of External Speaker Housings, He would then sell these off throughout the year, they always made a good buy as the extra filtering was pretty useful.

This one matched to my Icom pretty well but I cannot remember if I ever used the Built I BHi filter.

This was bought off Godfrey (GD4EIP) Years back, one of many, Yaesu SP-8 External Speaker with BHi Filter
This was bought off Godfrey (GD4EIP) Years back, one of many, Yaesu SP-8 External Speaker with BHi Filter

The MFJ-784B is one of those small accessories that you by because it gives you more than you would get out of your own radio, I bought this off Godfrey (GD4EIP) a while back and I am glad that I did, nowadays when you are listening to a noisy signal, you can pull the signal completely out of the noise using DSP, but in the old days we did not have the luxury of a DSP filter, so we would buy one of these or the timewave device that I also owned and was also from Godfrey (he is a good friend who always has nice stuff for sale), these little units are worth their weight in gold, if not double, Sometimes the Noise Filtering in the radio distorts everything when you are trying to to bring a signal out of the noise, this is when the MFJ Unit really steps up to get rid of the noise without distorting the wanted signal.

MFJ-784B - DSP Tunable DSP Filter - A Pretty Useful Unit.
MFJ-784B - DSP Tunable DSP Filter - A Pretty Useful Unit.
A Very Basic Kenwood SP-180 External Speaker
A Very Basic Kenwood SP-180 External Speaker

Who has not owned a Realistic Scanner or a Receiver in their journey as a Young Ham, I miss a few that I did own over the years, I had a couple that I remember that had RS232 Interfaces installed in them, this would enable programming, I miss them now but you never think when you have the gear.

I think we have all owned one of these at one point. the Realistic DX-394 Receiver.
I think we have all owned one of these at one point. the Realistic DX-394 Receiver.

This is hard, and it is taking time to get me through each item, each item reminds me of much better times.

Last Updated – 16th May 2023

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