[Milsurplus] Yaesu FT-One

[Mark]

There is a modification out there that improves the stability of this set.
Does any one have info on this modification?
I did call Yeasu and they insisted that they never made this model. I purchased
it new from a dealer in Los Angeles.
So much for customer satisfaction.
Joe
AF0W

Yaesu billed their FT-One (yes they DID make it) as the ne-plus-ultra 
HF set of the day.  I bought one used from AES in the mid-80s, and it's 
my only HF ricebox.  It gets used sometimes to set up antennas, and in 
the extremely rare instances when ALL my primary HF mil gear has gone 
blooie.

Looking at the circuit, it's a multi-loop PLL type typical of the time 
before DDS -- sort of an FT-70 on steroids.  My example has the same problem, it gradually wanders out of frequency alignment over time and 
I have to tweak it back on.

Yaesu did offer a high-stability TCXO for the FT-One, but by the time I 
bought my radio (only a couple years after it came out) the upgrade had 
become unobtanium.  It was frustrating to say the least, and was one of the things that turned me off totally to commercial HF ham gear.  I've never bought another HF ricebox since (over 25 years).

I'm not surprised Yaesu would disavow the radio.  Since I have one, I can
speak my piece -- IMHOP it was a turkey, Yaesu's equivalent of Vista.

If someone has worked out a way to stabilize this radio, I'd like to know
too! 

--Mark Francis

Author of "Mil Spec Radio Gear Volume 2"
Available direct from the author, Universal Radio, and a
"surprise" source to be named later. 
$29 cash/check/M.O. or $30.17 via Paypal, when ordered direct
& shipped to the U.S. (Foreign buyers please contact me).

See: www.mmfrancis.com/MSRG2/MSRG2.jpg

Volume 1 is still available from CQ, Universal Radio, and
Amazon.

There are people who make things happen,
there are people who watch things happen,
and there are people who wonder what happened.
To be successful you need to be a person 
who makes things happen.
                           --Jim Lovell
                             Astronaut