Yaesu FRG-9600 - Anyone Else Have One?

[RadioDaze]

Anyone still using one of these? I just dug one out of a box - I had all but forgotten about it. Not really any analog channels that I would monitor full time around here (Orange County, CA) but I'm wondering if there's any reason to keep this beast. Looking at the receipt, I see that I bought it at HRO in Anaheim in 1988. I cannot fathom how, at that time, I had the money it took to buy it!

I don't have the computer interface, but I'm guessing that's what I'd really need to get some fun out of it.

 

[zz0468]

I had one years ago. It was a fun toy, but performance was pretty mediocre. I found that lousy performance was a major distraction. The front end is essentially just a vhf/uhf tv receiver module.

 

[N8IWS]

Frg - 9600

I used to have one and regret selling it. The guy who purchased it still won't give it up, it had all of the options installed. I never fully tried out everything to see if it worked, but needed the money at the time. Never had any luck winning on off of Ebay. That even applies to the FRG-7700 I still desire.

Dale

 

[chgomonitor]

Da Frog

I still have mine. Recently found an old copy of the service manual, too and I was able to peak it up a little. Mine always lost the memories when the power was disconnected. My buttons have become a little sticky over the years. I tried both of the published mods for opening up 25-60 MHz, neither worked. I turned the Aux jack phono plug on the back into a discriminator output, and these are fairly good radios for data reception. They had remarkably good 800 MHz performance for their day. Unusual filter shapes made these sort of unique receivers. Today, mine sounds really poor on the new narrowband FM land mobile signals. (The FM narrow filter is fairly wide). I've never been able to get good audio reception in the 460-461 band (buzzy), but they have nice audio everywhere else. Good Broadcast FM receiver, too. Quite "hot" on VHF land mobile (150-174), but less than stellar on VHF aero band. Decent on UHF mil-aero. I replaced the PL-259 antenna connector with a BNC or N, can't recall which. Very good on 200-220 FM and sideband systems.

More of a communications receiver than a scanner. They do the Yaesu "keeps going" scan thing after a brief delay, the numbers flash in sequence as a count down to scan resume. You can search between limits or any group of ten channels in the one of ten banks. 60-905 MHz frequency coverage, very continuous with no gaps or cuts (pre-cell ban radio). Outstanding receiver for wireless mikes, especially widerbanded FM UHF models. These were once popular receivers with the de-bugging crowd for that reason.

Radio does not fully squelch in AM and AM narrow modes, slight hiss remains, annoying. Great, detented tuning knob but volume and squelch rubber knob sleeves tend to develop slip with age. Great function on the built-in attenuator. Clock and timer functions. Cute digital S-meter, works well.

Superb single sideband reception performance, very narrow filters, too. But if my memory serves, SSB is not available across the entire frequency range. In SSB and AM Narrow will tune in 1 Khz or 100 Hz steps. Both USB and LSB available from the front panel, but it does offset +/- in SSB modes, think 70's, LOL. . In AM Wide and FM Narrow steps are 5, 10, 12.5 and 25 Khz, 100 Khz only in FM Wide. Crude priority feature. Annoying programming system.

My name label metal strip from the top of the display worked its way loose and was lost during a move. All metal chassis, these things were built like a tank and are easy to work on.

We had these running at very high speeds and acting like real scanners with real scan delay by using a Commodore 64 control package back in the day. We even wrote our own control programs and it was easy to do. These radios have a functioning CAT system interface, but I've never been able to get it up and running that way using modern IBM PC's. Its astounding seeing a FRG-9600 scanning at >35 channels a second. I guess because the CAT interface is based around the TTL standard and C64's used it, they were an ideal match with no level converters needed for the signalling.

Fun radio. What are they worth today? I guess, whatever someone will pay, LOL.

Happy Scanning! - Ted

 

[RadioDaze]

Thanks for the long and thoughtful post, Ted. I share many of your observations, but you have explored the radio in more depth than I have. I never used the "scanning" features, as it's pretty useless. But it's a nice VFO. There's just not much around here to listen to anymore. I never did try it on a computer. But there's better choices now. I'd think the Yaesu VR-5000 blows it away for probably less in inflation-adjusted $$.

Mine was stored in a box for the last 5 years, and it was a nostalgia trip taking it out. My VFO knob's rubber cover had eventually began to slip and fall off occasionally. The volume knob has a rubber cover that, when new, has a really nice feel to it. But it's only a cap that fits over an undersized plastic nub, not like the squelch knob above it. It's because it's concentric with the tone knob. So Yaesu used some kind of glue to fill in the difference between the OD of the plastic and the ID of the rubber. Mine came off and was a bit gummy on the rubber knurls. But these rubber knob covers, including the VFO and squelch knob, clean up really nicely with a soft toothbrush and some liquid dish soap. Just like sparkling brand new. Then I removed the plastic volume nub & cleaned up the old glue, roughed it up with some 600 grit, applied some JB Weld inside the rubber - enough to make sure it fills the gap, and controlled and removed the squeeze out. Like gluing a crown onto a drilled out tooth. Now the volume knob has that really nice solid feel it had in the beginning. Also applied epoxy to the VFO knob cover.

The rest of my radio is immaculate, still has the name badge that you lost, no scratches on the LED cover, and it still operates as it did on day one - which of course is fair for a receiver of its price. I also have everything that came with it - the PS, the antenna, the mobile mounting bracket & knobs, the little chrome bail that props it up on a desktop, and the manual & warranty card (even the receipt - HRO Anaheim, 12-19-1988, 499.95 plus tax!!.) It's in better shape than I was before MY 21st birthday. It even held its memories after being in a box for years. I can't even do that myself!

I see that these have recently sold for between 225 and 275 on ebay, and aren't as complete as mine.

N8IAA had right of first refusal on it, but he's taking a pass in order to find something with more advanced new tuning steps. So I'll probably offer it up soon on the forum's classifieds for a quick sale at around 200. I got more toys to fund, more radios to buy.

Now, about my Kenwood R-600...

 

[Hooligan]

I got my FRG-9600 in I think 1985. It was one of the few products out at the time that'd do 800MHz, which I 'needed' because my local PD had just switched from VHF to 800. Bought mine from a little known company (Dog House Electronics, I think) that turned out to have been run by a recently retired CIA electronics wizard.

As others mentioned, it certainly wasn't much of a 'scanner,' but a decent communications receiver that provided some amazing entertainment (cell phones...) and the very nice signal strength indicator & attenuator made it pretty easy to track down some 'secret' federal & state law enforcement locations back in the day. It was also great for UHF military satellite communications monitoring.


I still have my 9600, with a speech-inversion decoder attached, but it's been in the box for 5+ years & I should either sell it or find a use for it again.