#179

In todays video we see if we can bring this crusty old Yaesu FR-101 back to life.
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[@marklowe7431]

It's very gratifying seeing radios like this being preserved.

[@timothyrehfeldt5709]

Watching your video, you make it look easy to troubleshoot and trace signals and voltages. Your knowledge of these old radios is amazing. Well done.

[@TheRadioShop]

Wow, thanks

[@JesusIsLordofMybeing]

Awesome video!! Love how thorough and intuitive your videos are!! Thank you always watching what you have to troubleshoot next. 73's

[@TheRadioShop]

Thanks for your kind words. Plenty more to come.

[@vonzigle]

Thanks for another great video! Like your low key, calm approach... 🙂

[@TheRadioShop]

Thank you.

[@mellagarde7142]

Good evening Buddy, Another wonderful video and so interesting to watch and learn. Look forward to the next chapter of this repair. Mel

[@TheRadioShop]

Hi Mel and thanks. Fun rig to work on.

[@xraytonyb]

Great video, Buddy! That will be a fine receiver for the owner. Thank you for the troubleshooting tips and I'll be looking forward to the next part!

[@TheRadioShop]

Thanks Tony. This is a nice old receiver and fun to work on. Thanks for watching.

[@lylewatts6370]

Now that's a receiver I would like to get my hands on and also the matching transmitter but I think I have enough boat anchors for now. Great video as usual and I love the old 30 pound rigs. Thanks Buddy

[@TheRadioShop]

Thanks Lyle. Would not mind owning this one myself.

[@michelfries1429]

Watching your videos while working on my broken stuff brings me hope in my investigations! Haha! Thanks a lot for sharing this! 73s

[@TheRadioShop]

Thank you Michel. I do the same also. Work on gear while watching others on KZbin. Helps me.

[@TRXLab]

That was a very nice walk through and she is back alive :-) Thanks for sharing Buddy

[@TheRadioShop]

Hi Peter. Yes it was a fun repair. Enjoyed working on this one. Thanks for watching.

[@pierrelataillade7564]

Well buddy you hit it out of the park again ...... Very informative .. Thank you.

[@TheRadioShop]

Thanks Pierre, this was very fun to work on. So simple design.

[@pavil58yt]

Enjoyed that. Thanks. Now to find the Part 2.

[@OleF112]

Buddy, thank you for this nice ts! Love to the that old receiver making some good noise again. As i have some old DMM with dimm vac display, i am looking forward to some work on the brightness...maybe you are lucky with that. 73 and all the best from Cologne, Germany. Olaf

[@TheRadioShop]

Thanks Olaf, Glad you found interest in the repair. I really be interesting to find the faults in the VFD tubes. Thank you for stopping by my friend. 73 and the best to you also.

[@langhilau]

As always Buddy a very informative video and I have now taken one piece of advice that you toss out, and that is start by checking to see what parts of the radio are actually working and which ones are not. I was about to send a radio off last week that had an intermittent receive issue but I kept at it following your steps and found out that I had a dirty tube socket that making a tube shutoff when it warmed up. I used some Deoxit one the sockets and it now works great. Kevin - KG0MN

[@TheRadioShop]

As you saw in the video by using this method the problem showed itself, and very quickly. You guys were seeing it as I saw it. Always works for me. Glad you saved yourself some dollars be fixing the bad tube socket. That is using your common since. Thanks for the comment.

[@edmclaughlin4923]

Excellent. Thank you.

[@TheRadioShop]

Thanks Ed.

[@bundylovess]

Looking forward to the next video buddy . That one cool looks rig big thumbs up 👍

[@TheRadioShop]

Thanks allan, yes it is a sweet old rig,.

[@sidneyfreedman8875]

Great video. I got the twin set here Fr-101 and FL-101 would like to get them working. Time to get in do some testing I got the manuals and schematics. Ham friend wanted to dump it. Hope I can save it.

[@old64goat]

Great video Buddy, you sure know your stuff.

[@TheRadioShop]

Thanks Bill. Just remember I am just an ordinary guy that gets lucky at times.

[@tectalabyss]

Hi Buddy. Another outstanding job. All my best. Bobby

[@TheRadioShop]

Thanks Bobby

[@IamDerick]

Great work! I love your repair videos in general, but your 101 videos are a special treat. 73 Derick K7TIE

[@dougmcartin3881]

I'll bet you those VHF boards went on Ebay at some point in unknown condition since the receiver wasn't working and probably sold for a good bit of cash. That was a pretty high end receiver back in around 1976 or so selling for $800 that being around $3500 in todays dollarettes. Always good to see another blast from the past in The Radio Shop. 73 Doug.

[@TheRadioShop]

I am thinking the same on that Doug. Lucky the whole unit was not stripped down and sold for parts. Thanks for stopping in.

[@bblod4896]

Great job Buddy. Since that radio is a bit old, would it be a good idea to change all the electrolytic capacitors in the entire transceiver?

[@scottlee1211]

Another great video Buddy!

[@TheRadioShop]

Appreciate that Scott.

[@45AMT]

It was on 7200 that's why it died LOL Good job. You never know what you'll find when you start tracing. Sometimes the problem will fall into your lap.

[@TheRadioShop]

LOL. You are correct. Just basic troubleshooting led me right to the problem.

[@LarryDeSilva64]

A broken little cap and that kept rf from coming through. Sometimes a good pair of eyes comes in handy doesn't it Buddy. It is really hard to believe a unit that looks pretty clean initially can be corroded. Great bunch of troubleshooting step by step Buddy.

[@TheRadioShop]

You know my friend at times the best test gear is your own senses. Just following basic troubleshooting revealed the problem pretty quick. Thanks

[@GrandsonofKong]

Love the restoration videos! Did the owner mention where he got this from? Ebay or ?? Just curious and look forward to more! Especially if you can balance out that display

[@TheRadioShop]

He picked it up at a ham fest a few months back. Did not give a lot for it either. Will be interesting on what we can do to get the original tubes back bright. Thanks for the comment.

[@craxd1]

You'll see boards removed a lot from eBay units, especially from a few vendors that mark everything as "has problems." They're bad to rob these boards to resell, and sell the transceiver as not working, or has problems.

[@mikesradiorepair]

Another Frog brought back to life. I would remove that preamp to. Most of those things have no filtering and amplify the noise floor as much as the signal you want. Look forward to the next part.

[@TheRadioShop]

Agreed with that Mike. As seen the noise floor was between s6 s7. Most which is probably the preamp causing it. I will say it was no surprise how easy it was to get going. Very simple design.

[@majordisappointment8692]

Good to see the old girl has got some life in her. Have you ever messed with a Bearcat DX 1000 lol i know you probably never heard of it? Thanks for the video

[@TheRadioShop]

Ah the Bearcat DX-1000 dual conversion receiver. Nice old radio. Ahead of its time. Never seen one in person. Thanks

[@AF6LJSue]

Good Stuff.

[@TheRadioShop]

Thank you very much Sue.

[@tlrptg]

change those VFDs to Russian VFDs, you can buy new old stocks of them cheaply on Ebay. They work really well.

[@TheRadioShop]

Thanks for that information!

[@DonDegidio]

Hi Buddy, Nice diagnosing. Shame the two modules are missing. I agree removing the preamp board would be best. Looking forward to the video on the display module. 73 WB3BJU

[@TheRadioShop]

Thanks Donald. Those two boards would really complete the unit.

[@kaosune2]

Thank you for your video, very helpful. I too am restoring an older FR-101S. Dont know if there is a difference between FR-101 and FR-101S? I had a FR-101D 30 something years ago and regret parting with it. Can you tell me about the regulater.BFO board, the board in my FR-101S is labeled "PB-1312A" but the schematic calls it "PB-1549" ?? Anyways there is no voltage on pins 14 & 17 on the rail. Cheers...VE7QRP

[@normann4016]

hi there,do you have a tip on howto calibrate the s-meter ? it sticks to zero on 40m band and does not go over 9 when listening to powerful bc stations... thnx and 73s de I-VE611

[@rohnkd4hct260]

I would yank out that pre-amp. willing to bet the "tech" put that in to "fix" the decreased receive that came from the broken cap you found , and was that problem from the start. The active antenna........ probably came from a mag article and he decided to try it out. Looks like great radio and worth putting time in to restore.

[@TheRadioShop]

Yep, I do not see it helping that much at all. Just generating more noise. Thanks for watching

[@exedracs4029]

Gday mate I recently acquired one of these. Literally brand new. Left in the plastic since 1975, insane. I was just wondering how much I could get for it and how sought after they are? Thankyou sir

[@theradiomechanic9625]

Nice job Buddy, Been looking for an inexpensive SW receiver and will check the next flea for one of these. Have a question. The red colored lettering on the front looks more like splashed paint than actual lettering. Then I checked on line and most of them seem to look like that. Is this a common issue with these? Or is this a trick of the camera.

[@TheRadioShop]

I think these are great receivers. I always wanted one myself. It is funny you mentioned that about the red letters. They seem to be camera proof lol. They are nice and sharp to the eye but go nuts when the camera tries to focus on them. I too noticed that they look like that online. In part two I will use a filter so you can see the letters in better detail. Thanks for stopping in my friend.

[@phillipleroy1452]

Good video Buddy

[@TheRadioShop]

Thank you very much Phillip.

[@BruceNitroxpro]

Looking for part 2 of this resurrection.

[@paublusamericanus292]

thanks for showing us buddy. I thought it was in the section you found it, but didn't know it would be the connection from the previous stage. that would stop things quickly. I hope you find resistors to boost the weak digital readout tubes. that would make the radio look new. I doubt you will find those two boards though. I bet when the radio went deaf, the guy just pulled those two boards, and didn't think about the fm board

[@TheRadioShop]

Thanks Paublus. I was pretty sure it was going the be the oscillator or vfo circuit. You guys got to see it as I was seeing in. Good call my friend. When I saw the cap hanging loose I knew the mystery was solved. We still have a lot of work on it.

[@ptronix]

I think it's very unlikely you will get those vfds to perform better, had the same problem with a hp dmm, luckily I managed to get a new display from China fairly cheaply, so good luck finding some new old stock maybe!

[@TheRadioShop]

You are probably correct, but I always try first. I did find some from Russia.

[@aaronson2540]

Good Morning Buddy.... I am assuming they don't make these 2 meter and 6 meter boards anymore , I currently have one of these receiver but not sure weather or not it has the boards already.... Nice Video Buddy

[@TheRadioShop]

Hi Aaron. Yep, not been made sing the 70's. I was looking these over today and they can be built. Thanks for watching

[@aaronson2540]

@@TheRadioShop Build Me One All Try It Out.... 😁😁😁

[@bblod4896]

Ah, you got the schematics.

[@TheRadioShop]

Yep. I think I can clean them up a bit. Thanks

[@rparker4843]

Hay buddy why do you not do any kenwood 830 videos

[@TheRadioShop]

Rarely do I see them come in.

[@jojopri22]

AWESOME VIDEO AGAIN BUDDY. PLEASE CHECK MY EMAIL TO YOU, 73! JOJO