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Reviews For: Yaesu FTV-707

Category: Transverters

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Review Summary For : Yaesu FTV-707
Reviews: 1MSRP: 200
Description:
28MHz to VHF transverter frame. Drive of 1mW required for full 10W output. Houses ALC and a plug in single band module for 50, 144 or 432MHz.
Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0013
GW4RWR Rating: 2002-05-04
Neat complement to the FT707, great in its day. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This transverter has the lovely arrangement of being able to choose and change the RF module for your choice of band. Excellent alc of the 28MHz drive, discrete components on one pcb, and n two bipolar stage PA which sits against the rear panel heat sink. This used discrete devices for 6m, and a sealed module for 2m.

My 116MHz crystal drifted down depending on ambient temperature. I learnt 'summer' and 'winter' shack settings.

Receive path was perhaps normal for its day - 3SK51 front end and mixer. Sensitivity was adequate for general use, in fact it equalled a Mutek transverter that I tried side by side.Excellent three stage rx filtering. I sold the Mutek!

The 6m module offered similar sensitivity, but slightly more noise, than a PW 'Meon' design.

The front panel has a surprising collection of 'things to fiddle with':

- Band swith for crystal selection of 50-52, 144-146 or 430-432-434-436-438MHz

-Tune pot which controls the varicap diodes for aligning the TX stages. A better option than wide band LC filters, no doubt.

-RX gain pot. This controlled the volts on G2 of the front end. Rather a strange arrangement, that front end was never sensitive enough anyway!

-ALC/PO switch for meter display

-ALC selection of lower power for AM use.

-External receive. This bypassed the transverted rx, allowing reception on the 10m antenna port.

I feed the ALC output back to the FT707 for better control of the transverted output power. This is especially relevant for use with amplifiers. If the PA modules are bypassed, the pcb has 500mW output...better for driving further transverters, or for any low power operation.

In all, a very useful addition to the FT-707, that's assuming that you've any VHF interests. Anway, even those HF only people iike 6m, surely? My major qualm was breakthrough of 10m signals into the FT707. Time and again I thought I was hearing some sporadic E, only to hit that external receive switch, and find that it was 10m!


Modifications included:

Change the front end fet and replace míxer fet for a ring diode DBM. Boost the LO drive for the DBM. Feed separate rx input direct to the front end, bypassing the relay. This will bring the rx side up to modern standards. Use the RX gain pot to control tx gain, hence power output.