[Yaesu] FT990 display

[Kjell W. Strom]

Hej Peter,

My FT990 developed the same problem after years of 24/7 duty as
a Pactor PBBS.  But don't worry, there's still a lot of light
left in there! The light is emitted by a vacuum fluorescent
display, which by nature is greenish blue. In front of it there
is a very dense filter, which only allows the very small
fraction of the total light, which falls in the orange part of
the VFD spectrum, to pass.

I have removed the orange filter and for the last three or four
years I have been running my greenish blue display in the first
or second brightness position.

First a warning: I'm only describing what I did to my own radio
and cannot be held responsible whatsoever for any damage caused
by a person trying to use the following  as a work description,
which is not intended to be. Further, any warranty left in that
old box will certainly be void.

1. The plastic decoration strip directly below the display
window can be removed. I did so by carefully lifting it at the
end to the left of the YAESU badge and sliding it approximately
3 mm to the left.

2. I removed the display window by unscrewing the little screws
which now became visible. This allowed me to take out the
escutcheon, which contains the orange filter.

3. The next operation required considerable patience and care
since the escutcheon material is quite brittle when worked upon.
Using hobby knife and a straight ruler I cut through the
escutcheon sheet around the orange filter part, until it could
be peeled out.

4. After restoring the escutcheon, display window, screws and
decoration  strips back to their positions, I was quite happy
with the resulting brightness. Since the "works" of the VFD may
be visible during some ambient light conditions, I have
considered adding a light gray filter, but it has not annoyed me
enough to make me go to the photo shop.

So Peter, that's how my FT-990 got its aurora-tinted display. I
hope that life up north is good.

73,
Kjell, PB3SM - SM6CPI





-----Original Message-----
From: yaesu-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:yaesu-bounces at contesting.com]On Behalf Of Peter Sundberg
Sent: September 10, 2005 16:22
To: yaesu at contesting.com
Subject: [Yaesu] FT990 display


Now having a new MkV I realize how dim the display is on my old
FT990. Is
there a way to increase display brightness on that old machine?
Is it doomed to eventually fade out completely or is it just by
comparison
it looks dim?

I have not had the 990 since it was new, so I can't really tell
if it
slowly fades out or if it's always been like this. I understand
the
principal difference between the MP display and the 990, but I
wouldn'd
mind the 990 to "shine" a bit more.. it's too good a radio to
throw on the
junkpile just yet..

:-)

73/Peter SM2CEW




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