July 4, 2020, 2 a.m.
Just a short update to report on my latest eBay acquisition — a Yaesu FT-757GX.
Like I needed another transceiver, right? Hi!
This was was listed with a reasonable Buy It Now, but I submitted a low-ball offer that the seller accepted. I took a gamble on the radio; the seller said the receive worked and that was the extent of the testing.
The FT-757GX was my first solid state rig that I purchased in 1989, and I’ve owned several over the years — several of which were apparent victims of some 11-meter screwdriver technicians.
And yes, the rig was a gamble, but I’ve had enough of them to be able to pick up on the tell-tale signs that they’ve been tinkered with extensively. This particular rig did not show signs of abuse; all the case screws were intact and didn’t appear to have a lot of wear. The front face of the radio is plastic, and the front is prone to wearing through the finish on the top left and right edges, particularly near the power, MOX and VOX buttons.
Overall the case didn’t show a lot of scratches or dents. No apparent mods, either. And frankly, I got the rig cheap enough so that I could part it out on eBay and recoup my investment.
SO DOES IT WORK? I cobbled together a power cord and took the rig upstairs to give it a try. The receiver works fine, all the functions work. I connected a key and the keyer works well. I don’t have a mic, but the transmitter works fine on CW.
Another important check was the VFO knob; the encoder shafts on these models is prone to dragging and even locking up. I’ve repaired several FT-757GXs that had wonky encoder shafts. Fortunately, the encoder shaft on this FT-757GX turns freely. Judging from the wear on the front panel, for a 35-year-old rig, it didn’t get abused. It has some wear on the sides of the front panel that look like marks from being placed next to another piece of gear. Nothing major.
I checked the rig thoroughly, and ran across one odd anomoly. The transceiver comes equipped with two CW filters, wide (1300 Hz) and narrow (600 Hz). It really is a full-featured rig and for me in 1989, offered a lot of bang for the buck … I paid $600 for mine at the Bedford, Ind. hamfest that fall.
When I was checking the narrow CW filter, it didn’t seem to work properly. While messing with it, I punched the Noise Blanker button into the “on” position, and the narrow CW filter came to life and worked as designed! Since I work a lot of CW, I’ll have to remember that trick.
So what gives? The FT-757GX is notorious for bad switching diodes. In the 1990s, if Yaesu had one in for servicing, they replaced all the diodes in a couple of trouble areas figuring it was easier to fix now than in than in a later warranty repair.
I don’t think I’ll be opening the rig up to replace the diodes unless another issue comes up. There’s a plethora of problems that arise from bad diodes, if nothing else comes up, I’ll run it as is. I still have to put the rig thru its paces.
73 es CUL … de KY4Z … SK SK … (dit dit) ….