Hi John,
?
As Amanda says, the 8 is an oddity, but the date code is the pair of characters with a single digit followed by a letter, in your case 3C. The Z and ZD were completely different radios to the FT-101.
?
There was no FT-101A. These radios went straight from the FT-101 to the FT-101B. Similarly there were no C or D models, and the models that followed the FT-101B were the FT-101E and FT-101F. The FT-101 thru to the FT-101F were only manufactured between 1970 and 1979.
?
The early radios, FT-101 with no suffix, can be broken down into a number of sub-variants as Yaesu made frequent changes. You might hear of the FT-101 Mk I and the Mk II, and there was even a Mk 0 identified! For a better understanding of the history and changes of the FT-101 the FoxTango.org web page is well worth a read.
?
An even more in-depth understanding of the history of these radios can be had by looking at the Fox Tango Newsletters that are in the Files section of this group. These date back to just after the introduction of the FT-101 in the early 1970's and identify many of the problems with the radio and changes/improvements made by Yaesu as well as by ordinary users of the radio.
?
73,
?
Peter
G4DJB
