Hopefully there's a few folks out there still watching this group and can lend some advice.?
I may have made a mistake, and decided to buy an older/classic unit for my -first- HF rig. My thinking was to try to start with the basics and eventually work my way up to a more modern SDR transceiver. Anyway, I got it from a guy on Facebook marketplace who was moving to Texas for a new job and needed to clean house in a hurry.? For being around 40 years old this FT-980 does look immaculate, has the original owners manual and a MD-1 mic.? He did power it up to show me that everything "worked" at least from a lights / meters / band switching and VFO tuning perspective, although not hooked to an antenna to really prove anything and said he never used it because it was given to him.? Maybe that is my first mistake, but I'm trying to learn from them.?
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After I got home I connected a dummy load with a SWR / watt meter on it and was pleased to see that it would transmit right at 100w.? So this past weekend I strung up a dipole antenna tuned slightly above the center of the 40m band. Unfortunately, even with the volume (AF) and RF gain cranked I can barely pick up signals and the voices are all indiscernible. No matter how I try to fine tune the frequency, I can't pull them in and they are weak and garbled sounding whether I'm using headphones or via the built in speaker.? I was able to listen to CW on the lower portions of the 40m band fairly easily and they seem to have more clarity after adjusting the width/shift.? The FM mode is definitely seems louder, but maybe this is normal? ? I feel as if this station almost works.
I'm a little terrified of cracking the case open but have done fairly simple electronic repairs before replacing blown caps and so on, but I feel this is pretty daunting.
Based on what I have described, is it worth opening up to see if I can possibly locate a physical solder connection or visibly apparent failed component(s)?? I saw a few posts indicating this sort of problem, but I don't feel the unit has been abused from the exterior appearance.? Also, would there be standard components I would possibly need to replace just due to age of the unit that would? be the cause?
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Thanks for any tips and advice you can share!
Mike Nicholas, KQ4VKJ
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