Saturday, Jan. 16, 2021
I recently sold the Yaesu FT-77 I purchased a few months ago after I was able to get the radio’s transmit function restored. I had to make some other changes to neaten up the rig (one of the push buttons had been removed and replaced upside down), etc.
The biggest cosmetic change I made to the rig was the tuning knob. The original knob featured a soft rubber trim on a large metal knob. When new, the knob was attractive; however, that original knob did not age well. The rubber material eventually deteriorated into plastic mush. For this reason, almost none of the FT-77s you’ll see for sale have the original knob intact.
The knob you WILL see — as shown above — is not very attractive. The divot for the finger dimple isn’t functional as originally intended. After looking for a suitable replacement, I discovered that the Yaesu FT-757GX VFO knob is a direct replacement — no mods needed. I found one on eBay and purchased it. As seen in the photo below, the new knob looks great!
Now I had also read that the knob from another modern Yaesu rig would work if you enlarge the knob’s mounting hole slightly. A seller in China had those for sale, and I bought one of those too — before I discovered the FT-757GX knob was a direct replacement. The Chinese knob arrived a couple of weeks ago, and it doesn’t look nearly as nice as the FT-757GX knob. So now I have a surplus knob for sale, hi hi.
KNIGHT VFO UPDATE. I had time this evening to put the Knight VFO back together — it has what seemed like a dozen screws to secure the VFO in the case. Its a tight fit on the lower sides of the VFO, and I thought I better try the VFO out once it was buttoned up to insure it functioned.
The new cable is sufficiently long to reach just about any transmitter, and my FT-243 crystal “plug” works great.
The VFO works fine on all bands. The strongest signals were on 80 and 40 meters; the other HF bands the VFO could be heard, but the level seemed to drop as the frequency increase. That’s no surprise.
I did discover that if you tap the VFO case, you can induce a little warble in the signal, a “feature” that I need to keep in mind when I put the VFO and T-60 transmitter on the air.
I haven’t tried the transmitter, but I’m thinking of using it with my Heathkit HR-1680 (before I sell it). I have other receivers I can try too, a Hallicrafters SX-140, etc.
73 es CUL … de KY4Z … SK … SK …. (dit dit) …