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  1. Yaesu-FT-980
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FT=980 boards and accessories on EBAY.

 

Gang,

There are many FT-980 boards etc on Ebay.? Some are local and some come from Europe.? Some times it is easier to replace a board than an individual part.

73 Dave K4JRB

-----Original Message-----
From: "Wald N4PL via groups.io"
Sent: Feb 24, 2021 9:59 AM
To: "[email protected]"
Subject: Re: [Yaesu-FT-980] Still Kicking after 40 Years ...

Hi Mat,

OK, thx for the update.? If you had any problems with the character truncation you would have known that right away... I did figure that out the hard way.? My first QSO with the FT-980 was ZL2AIM who replied to me as I4PL and turned his beam to EU HI.? I quickly realized what was going on and switched to MOX.

As far as the Curtis keyer board... you have nothing to regret for not having it.? That IC requires a perfect paddle timing otherwise it immediately cancels the current character and starts a new one.? It is an art to master this keyer, especially if your expectations were set by, say, WB4VVF and later versions that had the "last character memory".?

FYI, I ended up ordering the Pico-keyer kit and built it on my own PCB that mounts inside the radio.? Connects via the same header.? I added a DC switching circuit so when the rig powers up the keyer uses the +9V internal supply line and cuts off the Lithium battery.? The front panel pot wiring required a small surgery though.? I have it all documented.? If you are interested I can upload it all to the server.

73, Wald N4PL
On Tuesday, February 23, 2021, 8:32:45 PM EST, Mat Breton <i.m.n8tw@...> wrote:


I was operating barefoot for the contest, so no QSK. My Henry linear doesn't have QSK capability natively. I've thought about adding it, but it would be expensive and a good-sized project.

I use an external keyer (K1EL). I don't even own the FT-980 curtis keyer pcb. I'm so used to the K1EL that it would be issue to swatch, I think. WIth the K1EL I've never received any feedback on a shortened initial dit, and I haven't noticed any miscopies that would indicate it. I also suspect it might be a curtis interaction with the FT-980. I note that it looks like the board was upgraded for later radios (FT-902, etc), and maybe they fixed this issue. The PCBs are backwards compatibile I believe.

--
-Mat Breton, N8TW

 

... but for some of us maybe not as much fun! :)?

The hardest repair I did on the FT-980 was tracking down a broken wire inside of T04 on the AF board. I was able to remove it, repair the hairthin wire, and reassemble it somehow. Since it was an intermittent connection, I spent weeks prodding around before I discovered that pressure on part of the AF board would flex the transformer and cause it to open: once open it was easy to track down to T04. Ugh ... maybe not so much fun after all ...

--
-Mat Breton, N8TW
 

... not much fun, and also... boards may be incompatible between vintages.

Dave's radio that I was working on had, among other problems, no CW sidetone. It was keying up OK but gave no feedback to the operator.? I traced the problem to the FSK board where CW functions are also processed.? I thought I would take a shortcut and use the board from Dave's parts radio.? Well, not so fast.? The parts radio was an older vintage and that FSK board had different connectors!? So I ended up fixing the defective board where I found a cold solder joint on the trace side. Yaesu placed there a spaghetti of diodes and jumpers.? One of them was just tucked in.? Took me a while to figure that out, as I had no schematic for this board version.

73, Wald N4PL
On Thursday, February 25, 2021, 7:34:38 PM EST, Mat Breton <i.m.n8tw@...> wrote:


... but for some of us maybe not as much fun! :)?

The hardest repair I did on the FT-980 was tracking down a broken wire inside of T04 on the AF board. I was able to remove it, repair the hairthin wire, and reassemble it somehow. Since it was an intermittent connection, I spent weeks prodding around before I discovered that pressure on part of the AF board would flex the transformer and cause it to open: once open it was easy to track down to T04. Ugh ... maybe not so much fun after all ...

--
-Mat Breton, N8TW

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