Yaesu FT-101E & FL-2100B AM Tune Up Procedure

[@scottnelson3198]

Cool old rig! Nice to see you care about treating her properly. Good luck, 73's.

[@jstrunck]

Fine Business on the FT station! I had a CLEAN FT-101EE, Mic & Lineliner. Also had a narrow cw filter and was a JOY to operate! Awesome 2100 John

[@kf6ume]

@af4k Yes, I agree. I've found the best output and best audio reports are after I've tuned the output power while modulating the radio. It's usually a very slight adjustment, but it does make a difference. Thanks for the post!

[@Garglon]

Hi DL3CE, I'm sure you may be correct under some circumstances, but it turned out to be a fault with the amp - it shouldn't show a current at rest with zero drive. I checked and found both the resistors R7 & R8 were showing scorch marks and one was out of tolerance - changed these but it made no difference. Then I found that resistor R5 was cracked in half, open circuit. Replaced this, turned the amp on, no current at rest! Amp has been working like a dream ever since.

[@kf6ume]

Thanks for the comment! It will handle up to 1KW in short bursts, and easily handles a few hundred watts continuously. GREAT for the test bench. I built it over 10 years ago and have never had to replace any of the resistors (or oil). You know you've been putting out some juice when the can gets hot! Anyway, just google "oil filled dummy load" and you'll find tons of info on how to make one.

[@1947dodgewf32]

I had always thought you should tune both the 101 and 2100 for maximum smoke on SSB and then back your carrier down for AM and keep it where the book suggests (I want to say 40ma) but double check. That should give you about 25 watts of AM carrier times 4 to equal roughly 100watts of AM out of the 101. Going into the amp its going to times that by 4 again. Move your carrier up or down to adjust AM power. Becareful of those sweep tubes in the 101 with prolonged tuning periods. Flip it on and tune and back off again as fast as you can.

[@n1qeh62]

I have the Yaesu FL-2100B amp with 572B tubes and I am able to get 600 watts out with 100 watts drive from my Yaesu FT-767GX I am going to send your video to a friend of mine that has the same rig as you and he loves it and I bet he will let you know every thing you need to keep that rig running.

[@bigfoottoo2841]

After peaking the load, you should switch to grid current and readjust the load control for lowest grid current without reducing the output power by much.

[@agush8082]

Great Video. Straight forward.

[@kf6ume]

@Garglon I turned down the carrier on the 101, which lowers output from the radio. Thanks for the post.

[@philb7617]

Taking it easy but not fearing USING the FL-2100, just keep in mind it's a real world 600w pep amp, will do more but let's stay real world and not "push it". So, divide pep by 4 and at 100% mod you should enjoy 150w carrier without fearing hurting it. Want to "Take it easy"? 125w with audio peaks at 100% of 500 pep, a very decent & respectable signal for AM. And David, I'd enjoy chatting w/ you about a couple ideas I have for your "Challenging" antenna QTH. Plus, if you're using an 857D for HF, give serious consideration to INRAD's 2.9 SSB filter. A friend of mine TRANSFORMED the quaity of both RX & TX by adding one to his 857D and says it's the single best mod he's ever done to any radio & he's had many -73

[@1OFGODSOWN]

Finally somebody who speaks the TRUTH.That amplifier is one of the worst ever at being over driven.People think it's a 1200 watt PEP output amp when the 1200 watts is Input not Output watts.

[@af4k]

THAT's a great AM station! You should see excellent results. For AM mode, I would tune for best efficiency on voice peaks. Therefore tune as you would normally at full power. For AM operation you should see reduced power at rest and then modulate so that your 25 watt carrier from the 101E kicks up to 100 watt peaks, approximately. (INPUT power) I am not sure how much difference it will make tuning the rig and amp at 80 watts versus 600 watts. I would be interested to see others' comments.

[@kf6ume]

@smilerjeff Thanks for the post! This video wasn't intended to show new users how to operate the radio. As I state in the beginning, I'm requesting suggestions from "Elmers".

[@kf6ume]

@Garglon Good question, But I'm not sure. I don't think it should be pulling current while at rest.

[@arconeagain]

The user manual explains the tune up procedure fairly poorly. From what I can tell, you tune it for maximum RF power output with a plate current of 0.5A (CW?) With normal speech on sideband, the meter should indicate around 0.2 to 0.3A as the needle can't keep up with the peaks. So this is a range that roughly means you are not exceeding the plate current limit. On AM, tune for 0.2A with an unmodulated carrier. Now, did I interpret this correctly? Is this what the manual is saying?? Can somebody please confirm this for me? Even elaborate for me.

[@thevacuumtubejunky9774]

Your following procedures as I would. If I may answer your question with a question, does your 101-E drift on you?. Mine is starting to drift frequency a little, I think it's time for a recap and to possibly look over the crystal oscillator. Kind regards, Eric Dee.

[@theredbaron057]

Eric Dee very minor drift, it's actually pretty stable.

[@thevacuumtubejunky9774]

@@theredbaron057: Thank you for your time in response. That's great considering the age of these beauties, I'am glad to see someone besides myself taking pride in following the suggested tune and load process suggested. The Yeasu 101-E is a very mechanical rig which obviously as your aware, takes a little patients in fine tuning prior to carrying on a QSO, it's not by no means a "Plug N play" rig that a lot of the newer ham operators are used to, the Seasoned vacuum tube veterans are thinning out sad to say, my late Father for example licensed back in the mid 1930's tought me a lot about vacuum tube equipment, he also had a 101-E with the matching amp, scope, phone patch,external V.F.O. Mic , can't remember what other goodies, but they are Of the working class of ham rigs for sure. Thanks for sharing, enjoy your 101-E. Kind regards, Eric Dee.

[@theredbaron057]

That would be great! He can contact me via my QRZ profile or youtube. I'm quite sure my FL2100B has two problems: 1) soft tubes & 2) a few bad components. Power output is only ~300 watts with 100 in and there is a faint burning smell when using the amp on 10 - 20. On 40 & 80 it gets up to about 450 with 100 in. Strange thing is all parts look perfect with no burn marks. I can't isolate the trouble.

[@Garglon]

Hi, thanks for posting the video, very helpful.

[@Garglon]

Towards the very end of the video, you decide the power is too high so you drop it back - did you reduce the drive on the amp?

[@kf6ume]

Hi Johnathan, congrats! Your best resource is another amateur operator to assist you. Preferably one with experience on old tube radios. You can easily and almost instantly destroy a radio if you try and transmit without a properly tuned antenna. I would find a local ham club and ask for help. All the old guys will be familiar with this radio. Don't forget, you *must* have a ham license to transmit on the ham bands. For the 101 (hf radio), you'll need general class or higher. 73 de KF6UME

[@VintageTechFan]

That's the BIAS current, perfectly normal (But lookup the exact value for it in the manual). You would actually have a problem if that was NOT there.

[@kf6ume]

I would simply use eBay to price out sold listing of each unit. You could try and sell together, but it may be harder to find a buyer for both - especially if you don't know how to test them. Also, if you don't know how to test them properly, don't even think of transmitting on it. You will most certainly damage the transmitter and/or amp. Find a HAM club near you and ask a HAM for help. Good luck!

[@arthurziegler6021]

Looks good to me. I have the same. Don't push it to hard.

[@Garglon]

Just got myself a 2100z, the meter shows around a 50ma current at rest with no input - does this mean I have a problem?

[@luisgerardocastillo7280]

Como puedo activar el reley del 2100 b que funciona con el pedestal

[@dawg1157]

Dude! How do you make that sweet looking dummy load? That looks to be a paint can of some type?

[@thevacuumtubejunky9774]

That's a 1 gallon paint can which you can buy brand new at a Lowe's or home depot, filled with mineral oil, very simple to construct.

[@M1bcm-ham-radioCoUk]

Would have been better for newbies to actually see the 101's needle dip and peak as you were describing. easier to understand etc.

[@GamesandMoreChannelProductions]

MFJ makes them or you can make one your self