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Reviews For: Yaesu FRG-7000

Category: Receivers: General Coverage

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Review Summary For : Yaesu FRG-7000
Reviews: 5MSRP: 655
Description:
General coverage communications receiver, circa 1977-1980. Replaced the famous FRG-7. Triple conversion receiver covering 250kHz-29.999MHz.
Product is not in production
More Info: http://www.dxing.com/rx/frg7000.htm
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0054
IZ2EAS Rating: 2017-11-18
A classic Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I have always been intrigued by the Barlow-Wadley circuit, so I bought a Century 21 first, and on February this year I had the opportunity to get this radio.

I had it from a colleague at work, who bought it new in 1980 and has hardly used it; it may have seen a total of 8 hours of service. It looks like it just left the factory… I have been lucky ! I just replaced the electrolytic capacitors in the power supply board, to be on the safe side since it is always powered. I left all the other capacitors alone, since they look (and test) in pretty good shape. I must say that the construction quality is excellent.

It is very sensitive and the dynamic range isn’t that great, so I always have the attenuator inserted, and in the worst cases (e.g. 40 metres at evening) I detune the preselector to reduce the incoming signal even further… it works for me !

I have done also a very simple (and non-invasive) modification to enable the use of the narrow SSB filter also in AM; you can find the details here:

http://iz2eas.blogspot.it/2017/04/modifying-frg-7000.html

Have fun with that “little” cute radio…

73,
Michele IZ2EAS

MJESPERS Rating: 2014-08-27
Really nice set Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This receiver is a good performer even by today's standards, provided that the poor AM selectivity has been remedied by some kind of modification.
K2OWK Rating: 2010-01-06
Excellent HAM or SWL receiver Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I picked up this receiver off EBay for a good price. I have been out of ham radio for more then 50 years and decided to get back in. The receiver is very sensitive and tunes SSB signals perfectly. It is great and requires moving many dials, as I love to do. I will be installing a good antenna in the next few days and that should make this great receiver an excellent one. The only problem I encountered was the very slight noise generated by the digital desplay, just a very minor problem. The accuracy of the display is excellent just about dead on. I would recommend this receiver to anyone getting into ham radio or shortwave listining.
ERIEDXER Rating: 2009-10-28
Fun and decent classic Time Owned: more than 12 months.
If you take in to account that this is a classic receiver that requires moving some preselector knobs to tune, it is a lot of fun to operate. There is the slightly noticeable digital readout noise in the audio, but as far as performance I have found it to be right on par side to side with an FRG-7 on all the bands. When I'm away from my tube gear I find myself playing with this SS receiver almost as much as my Drake R7.
G4SOX Rating: 2008-06-15
User review of Yaesu FRG-7000 General Coverage Receiver Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Surprised that no reviews of this unit have been posted before!

Just purchased one of these receivers a month ago and here are some of my opinions. Described on a review site as an FRG-7 with a digital readout but lacking performance. Indeed the unit is very similar to the FRG-7 'Barlow-Wadley' design but apart from the digital readout has some differences in the IF design in addition to the narrow filter for SSB/CW lacking in the FRG-7. It also has a crystal controlled BFO which addresses the drift problem so often bemoaned by FRG-7 users. The physical appearance is also different it has a dark brown case/front panel & knobs. There are lots of coloured indicator lamps for the pre-selector band switch and for the inbuilt timer functions. The frequency display consists of a large clear five segment red readout the first two digits indicating the mhz range and the last three digits indicating the khz. The timer consists of a smaller 6 digit readout indicating local/time/GMT/swich on etc. and there are several switches to control the timer functions.
On my unit the pre-selector and mhz setting controls are 'lumpy' and on my similarly aged FRG-7 these controls are perfectly smooth. Unlike the FRG-7 these capacitors are all 'hidden' in screened enclosures making access impossible without a major strip down of the unit. The main tuning control is smooth but lacks the 'sophisticated' damping system of the FRG-7 (a felt ring behind the knob). The placement of the fine tune control is awful, the control is very stiff and only a small distance away from the the main tuning knob and the on/off switch.
In my opinion, but lacking test gear, the unit performs better than the FRG-7, the AM filter is the same 'barn door' as the FRG-7 but SSB filter is excellent not the best shape factor but it does it's job and the audio is excellent. Sensitivity is better and, as long as the attenuator is used on the lower frequencies, overload is about the same. If the unit is left connected to the mains but switched off the transformer/rectifiers/voltage stabilisers and timer circuits are on 24/7. So if someone has used the unit in this way these components will have a few hours clocked up after 30 years.
The real problem with the unit is the bleed through into the audio circuits of noise from the digital display. It's a sort of burbling sound at a fairly low level. You can switch the display off though and it goes. Presumably this was to allow outboard DC operation but I cannot find out any details on how to implement this so if anyone has these details and the other Gilfer mods please get in touch.
Overall I like the unit for it's retro looks and resonable performance. Paul.