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Reviews For: Yaesu / Sears FRG-7

Category: Receivers: General Coverage

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Review Summary For : Yaesu / Sears FRG-7
Reviews: 2MSRP:
Description:
Communications Receiver
Product is in production
More Info: http://foxtango.org/foxtangofrg7.htm
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0025
N4UE Rating: 2011-04-04
AKA 412.36380700 Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have owned a nice FRG-7 for a few years. I did a few mods to it, and it is an EXCELLENT radio. I have over 100 receivers and the Frog has a spot close by my main operating position / PC area.

A week or so ago I saw the Sears version for sale on eBay. The bidding was almost non-existant. The pictures and seller's description seemed fine. However, I had 3 concerns:

1. The Preselector and MHz dial didn't match (in the powered up picture)
2. The Lock light wasn't lit
3. Someone asked the seller if this was the same radio which he recently sold. The seller said it was the same radio and the buyer returned it stating it didn't work. The seller added that the radio worked and the buyer probably didn't know how to tune it.

I bid on it and got if for such a low price, I could part it out if necessary.......

It arrived double boxed with EXCELLENT packing. To my great surprise (and relief) it was in near mint condition.
I did my usual clean up and later discovered that the 11.0 to 29.9 MHz band was dead and the preselector had NO effect. Hmmmm, seemed OK during initial inspection. It turned out the bandswitch just needed a couple of drops of de-oxit. While I had the covers off for the 2nd time I did the "FINER Fine Tune" mod. This is an absolute necessity if you like to listen to SSB.

The radio now works 100% and like others have mentioned, the radio comes alive when you use a good external speaker.

ron
N4UE
N2HUN Rating: 2006-02-09
Clone of FRG-7 Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Several years ago I bought the Sears version of the FRG-7 from a swapmeet on 75 meters for 180 bucks. At the time I also had the Yaesu FRG-7. The Sears needed realignment, and after that was done, it was equal in performance to the Yaesu.

Appearance-wise, the only difference was that the Sears had a gray painted cabinet, versus the Yaesu's green. All the knobs, VFO dial, Wadley tuning, S -meter, fine tuning, etc was exactly the same. I sold it after a few years simply because it was really like having to FRG-7's.

It does have some nostalgic value for those who are into Sears memorabilia. I rate it as I would a FRG-7, a 5. Same rig, with a Sears label on it.