To: <yaesu@contesting.com>
> Date: Sun, 1 Nov 1998 09:20:42 -0500
> From: "Caitlyn M. Martin"
> Subject: [Yaesu] FT-107M specific questions
>
> Hi,
>
> First, I'd like to thank everyone who responded. The consensus seems to be
> that this rig is a good performer. Only one ham thought it was deaf, but he
> had his for all of six hours, which makes me think it was a problem with his
> rig, since everyone else liked theirs. Most everyone agrees that the marine
> rig color scheme hurt sales. Most seem to think it's ugly. I'm not exactly
> concerned with that, as much as I like my stuff to be pretty.
>
> The big concern was that if the counter IC in the display goes out, it is
> not readily replaceable, making repairs difficult, but not impossible. The
> thing is, if I take this rig, I am getting it very cheaply, so I may be
> willing to take that risk. How common a problem is this?
>
> The rig I am looking at is a later model with the WARC bands. It appears to
> be very clean, and comes with an SP-107P. It's an estate sale rig, and the
> person who has it now is not knowledgeable at all, and cannot tell me much
> other than that it was recently checked in the shop and works properly.
>
> OK, I see that there was a matching power supply (FP-107E). Why? The rig
> seems to have an internal supply. Was this an optional add-on, like on an
> IC-751? Is the external supply heavier duty? When and why would I want
> it???
>
> What was the DMS option? What did it do?
>
> Will I want to look for the other matching accessories (VFO, tuner,
> transverter)? How good was the transverter? Was it modular, as on the
> FTV-707? What bands were available, and could it hold multiple bands, like
> the FTV-901?
>
> What is this rig really worth? I can get this one for $300.
>
> My budget it tight right now, and I am committed to buying a TenTec Argo,
> but... if this is really a steal, I don't want to let it pass, and will work
> out the money parts.
>
> I am really open to more opinions and answers.
>
> Thanks,
> Caity
> hamgrrl KU4QD
>
Caity,
I had my FT-107M for 9 years. It saw a whole lot of use and even some
abuse. In my
opinion, it was the best rig in its day. Took a licking and kept on
ticking. Accidently
transmitted into a short once, no antenna another time. Also had it
mobile on several occasions.
I had the external supply. The salesman convinced me that there was
enough heat generated by
the finals that an internal supply would be too much. I don't really
know about that but even
with hours of full power CW the fan only needed to come on a few times
in years of use.
I wouldn't put a brick on the key though.
I had the non-warc unit and added 30m and 12m. When we got 17m I got a
new rig as there
was no room for the band. Also there is no general coverage RX. The
knob goes about 550KHz
and stops. I eventually bought the DMS. It had 10 tuneable memory
locations and my particular
unit extended the freq coverage to 700KHz on each band setting. The rig
is a good buy at $300.
The only problems I had in 9 years was: 1) the meter light burned out.
It is not fun to replace.
2) the WIDTH control needed alignment. At
zero setting, it started to generate
a S2 carrier that covered up some very weak signals. This was an easy
fix. With the exception of
the meter light, it is an easy rig to work on. I also bought the
extender card so that I could work on
the plug in boards ($32 at the time).
The matching supply contained a speaker which had good quality. Also
the ant tuner was nice and robust.
Never got the converters, the FT-726R came out and I got it instead.
Now if you want to compare this to the ARGO, go for the 107M - a
no-brainer.
73, Nick KU2A/1
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