[NLRS] Question on price for a FT-736R

[Gerald]

On Thu, 2005-09-22 at 21:51 -0500, Mike wrote:
> 
> Hi all, I have a question about what the fair price for an FT-736r would 
> be.  This unit is in average shape, the buttons all seem to work, it's 
> dusty and some of the finish has worn off.  It puts out about 30 watts 
> on both 2M and .7M.  70 cm only tunes from 430 to 450 thus it is missing 
> the 420-430 portion.  I believe it has the tone board installed but I 
> haven't tested it.  No smoking issues that I can see.  It has the Yaesu 
> MD-1 desk mic with it.  A discriminator tap has been added for 9600 baud 
> packet.  No other modules or bells or whistles that I can see. 
> 
> So the question is what should I expect to pay for something like 
> this???  Thanks much for your input.
> 
> Mike
> KB0ozn
> 
Going price on epay is $600 to 700.

Getting it to tune down to 420 takes only a bunch of key strokes on the
front panel. There's a mod procedure to warp the memories to extend the
bands about 10 MHz up and down. I've not found a need for that yet.

I prefer the 726 for receiving qualities, though the 736 has a plethora
of memories and other gadgets. I prefer the 726 for FM operation too, it
sounds better.

I find the 736 needs a good preamp, especially on 2m where the overall
gain seems down and there's about 30 db of signal level between
audibility (with full audio gain) and where the AGC begins to operate.
So when cranking up the gain to hear the weak signals without that
external preamp, and a local comes on its good by speaker or eardrums. I
added a MMIC between the first mixer and the first crystal filter on the
220 module in my 736 and that really made the receiver come alive. The
front end gain is lower than it should be and the mixer was terminated
by the crystal filter which made the conversion loss high and the
intermod far worse than it should be. I need to make careful
measurements and then document the modification. The parts needed for
the mod are simple, a MAV-011 MMIC, a resistor and a couple coupling
capacitors. Maybe something I'll document for next year's CSVHF
conference proceedings.

I'm really liking my FT-857D for coverage of HF, 6m, 2m, and 440 and it
covers the whole width of 420 to 450 as well as having continuous
receiver coverage for most of the interesting spectrum from 100 KHz to
164 and 420 to 460 or there'bouts. It definitely hears better with
better AGC than the 736 on 2m and 432. And is as good on 6m where it has
100 watts out. Its really compact, uses lots of menus that I find
logical in organization. Half a dozen different hams used mine for FD
last summer and most had never seen one before and made lots of contacts
while running a tuner to an 8' whip and keeping the power down to 25
watts out to extend trailer battery life.

I liked my first FT-857D so well, I bought another. $600 at a hamfest,
$699 from dealers. New with warranty. I think its a better buy than a
used 736, except that I have 220 in my 736 and am looking for a 1296
module to dedicate it to those bands at home. At least one 857 will get
to travel in my truck or camper in the future.

I should post a list of excess ham gear one of these days and slim down
the collection a little.

-- 
73, Jerry, K0CQ
Dr. Gerald N. Johnson, electrical engineer
All content copyright, Dr. Gerald N. Johnson