Yaesu FT-101EE

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airboss20

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I recently took posession of a Yaesu FT-101EE. I have my Tech license, but dont really plan on using this radio. I have been through the bands, and the tuner seems to pick up everything it should. I would like to sell it, but would like to make sure it is working properly on the Xmit side before I do so. It didn't come with any of the owners manuals or tech docs. This is like greek to me. I usually stick to the more modern Dual banders on VHF/UHF.

What, if anything, can I do to test the transmitter?
 

joen7xxx

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My first rig was an FT-101 EX. It is my back up to the back up to the back up. I had a geat time with it as a 5 wpm technician on 10 meters talking all over thee world. This is a very nice rig with good fidelity. It does taks a little finesse to tune it up for transmitting. If you listen to a station, dial the preselector knob and you will hear the received signal increase as you near the proper tuning point. Follow the manual for the tuning procedure. Transmit into an aqequately sized dummy load for short periods to test. Have fun!

Joe
 

gewecke

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Have you thought about trading your ft-101ee for something you can use?
Just a thought.


73,
n9zas
 

joen7xxx

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These things really have held their value because they are fun to run, but more importantly they came with 11 meters in them and operate at 180 watts, I believe on SSB!. Much better radio than a cobra and a leeeeaaanear! Gud buddy.
 

gewecke

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These things really have held their value because they are fun to run, but more importantly they came with 11 meters in them and operate at 180 watts, I believe on SSB!. Much better radio than a cobra and a leeeeaaanear! Gud buddy.

Yeah, but only about 40-45 watts on AM so I wouldn't get too excited "gud buddy". ;)

73,
n9zas
 

joen7xxx

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You're probably pretty correct. My operator's manual specs state 80 watts AM, (slightly lower on 10M). No mention of 11 M. I do find run.it odd that a radio made well after 11 meters was taken from the Amateur Service that Yaesu made one with 11 Meters transmit-capable. I do know when they were first introduced they weree hugely popular with the CB crowd. I never tried AM ops on mine. Funny, when I was running AMTOR Mode A for MARS it sounded like an unbalanced washing machine when the TR relay would cycle with every 3 characters. Worked fine though. Still a fun rig to operate.

73

Joe
 

KR4BD

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These things really have held their value because they are fun to run, but more importantly they came with 11 meters in them and operate at 180 watts, I believe on SSB!. Much better radio than a cobra and a leeeeaaanear! Gud buddy.

I had just gotten into ham radio in 1975 and remember all the 11-meter guys buying up these FT-101EEs. My mind MAY be a bit FOGGY on this, but I believe the FCC actually banned these 11-meter capable rigs from being sold in the U.S., but Yaesu (or importers) managed to keep the 11 meter shops supplied with these rigs along with a matching linear amplifier. I lived in a small SW Ohio town at the time that had a CB shop. Every week or so, a semi-trailer truck would unload a bunch of these rigs at the back door of the shop while they flew out the front door like hot cakes! It was a sight to watch! Word would get out that the truck arrived and they would be gone in a few hours! In that SW Ohio area, was a TV Channel 2 that was being terribly interfered with by all these high powered rigs. Remember, cable was not so big back then and OTA TV was common. Quite honestly, it was almost impossible to watch that TV station as there were so many 27 mHz ops throwing their first harmonics to 54 mHz (channel 2) in most neighborhoods.

To conclude.... The local hams got all the blame for this in the newspapers and soon TVI was such a nationwide problem that the FCC BANNED all "off the shelf" amps that could operate between about 24 and 30 mHz. That ban has only been recently lifted for ham amplifiers. Licensed hams, of course, could still legally modify their amps to operate on 10 meters if they desired and held at least a General Class Ticket.

As a result of the FT-101EE (and other rigs), I and many "old timers" would never buy Yaesu equipment. Yaesu, of course denied any involvement in all this, but many of us strongly believed this was probably not the case as these rigs are still very common in the U.S. today.

I wonder if there are any other old farts, like me, that remember any of this from the mid-late 1970's?
 
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ShawnInPaso

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My first HF rig was an FT101EE (still have it in a box somewhere around here). Anyway, I bought it in "like new" condition from a local guy in 1976 who bought it to use on 11 meters. The rigs didn't actually come with 11 meters, they came with 10 meters using a band switch for 10A, 10B, 10C and 10D. One could swap out one of the crystals for a 10 meter segment and make it into an 11 meter band selection.

101.jpg
 

KR4BD

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That's a Beautiful rig!

I wasn't totally clear about the 11 meter operation of the FT-101EE in my post above.

The CB shops in my area were selling them with the 11 meter crystal pre-installed. There were other rigs that could be modified for 11 meters (Drake Twins, for example), but the rig "of choice" for 11 meter ops seemed to be the Yaesu FT-101EE in my part of the country.

For newer hams, it should be noted that the 11 meter band was an authorized HAM band in the USA until sometime in the late 1950's at which time Citizens Band was created in that spectrum. It REMAINED a ham band in many parts of the world for many, many years after that which is why many rigs, like the FT-101EE, had provisions for 11 meter operation for use in areas where there was still a legal amateur allocation.
 
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joen7xxx

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Mine is an FT-101EX and actually has 11 m on the band selector. I have photo but am not smart enough to be able to embed it in this text box...
 

Token

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My first HF rig was an FT101EE (still have it in a box somewhere around here). Anyway, I bought it in "like new" condition from a local guy in 1976 who bought it to use on 11 meters. The rigs didn't actually come with 11 meters, they came with 10 meters using a band switch for 10A, 10B, 10C and 10D. One could swap out one of the crystals for a 10 meter segment and make it into an 11 meter band selection.

Mine is an FT-101EX and actually has 11 m on the band selector. I have photo but am not smart enough to be able to embed it in this text box...


Prior to a specific production date (mid 1970’s, but not sure of the exact date) all versions of the FT101 had a position marked “11”. After that production date the 10A, 10B, 10C, and 10D labels were shifted counterclockwise one position, and an “AUX” position was added to the band switch in the old 10D position.

All models also included a “JJY/WWV” position that tuned the 10000 to 10500 range.

On all rigs the 11, AUX, and JJY/WWV positions were receive only, no transmitter operation.

The original FT-101 model did not include a switch position for 160 meters (instead it had both an “11” and an “AUX”), but from the B model on 160 was included.

This means that all models and all production runs had the same number of switch positions, but not necessarily the same specific band selection positions on the switch.

So, the switch positions worked out as:

FT-101 (Mk I) – 80, 40, 20, 15, 11 (RX only), 10A, 10B, 10C, 10D, JJY/WWV (RX only), AUX

FT-101 (Mk2) FT-101 B/E/EE/EX (early) – 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 11 (RX only), 10A, 10B, 10C, 10D, JJY/WWV (RX only)

FT-101 B/E/EE/EX (late) and FT-101F/FE/FX – 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10A, 10B, 10C, 10D, AUX (RX only), JJY/WWV (RX only)

By the way, fewer letters is better in the 101E or F series. The EE was a lower cost version of the E model without a speech processor installed (but could be installed if purchased separately). The EX was an even lower cost version of the EE model without a DC converter, no 10B, 10C, 10D, or 160 meters crystals installed, and no microphone.

Both the EE and EX could be brought up to “E” specs if so desired.


I wasn't totally clear about the 11 meter operation of the FT-101EE in my post above.

The CB shops in my area were selling them with the 11 meter crystal pre-installed. There were other rigs that could be modified for 11 meters (Drake Twins, for example), but the rig "of choice" for 11 meter ops seemed to be the Yaesu FT-101EE in my part of the country.

For newer hams, it should be noted that the 11 meter band was an authorized HAM band in the USA until sometime in the late 1950's at which time Citizens Band was created in that spectrum. It REMAINED a ham band in many parts of the world for many, many years after that which is why many rigs, like the FT-101EE, had provisions for 11 meter operation for use in areas where there was still a legal amateur allocation.


The FT-101 never had the ability to transmit on 11 meters out of the box (from Yaesu). 11 meters was a US only ham allocations, and on a secondary basis at that. US hams did not gain 11 meters until 1947, when they were given access on a shared basis as compensation for giving up the top 300 kHz of 10 meters and the top 50 kHz of 20 meters. The band was actually authorized in 1946 but restrictions and military usage of the bands imposed during WW II continued after the war and were removed in phases, the last phase was in 1947 and included activating 11 meters. In September 1958 11 meters was removed from US hams and turned into Class D Citizens band. So hams only had 11 meters for 11 years, and US hams were the only ones who had it officially, although in some nations with less rigorous enforcement and regulation 11 meter ham operation was a fact, if not authorized. 11 meter ham operation died when US hams no longer had the band.


There were a couple of ways to put the 101 series on 11 meters, one of them simple and one not so easy.


The not so easy way was to rewire some of the control and switch positions to allow TX in the AUX and (if so marked) 11 meter positions. I have seen relatively few 101’s so modified, and some are just simply butchered.


The easy, and far most common, way was to simply remove one or more of the 10 meter crystals and replace them with crystals that allowed operation in the 11 meter band. It was very common for hams who also used 11 meters to leave 2 positions with 10 in them and 2 positions with 11 in them, but I have also seen a lot of rigs with all of the 10 M crystals removed and repopulated with 11 M and surrounding area crystals, say giving the complete range from 26000 to 28000. For optimal 11 M operation you also had to align the transmitter for the shifted band, but a lot of people did not bother with that.

T!
 
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KR4BD

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So hams only had 11 meters for 11 years, and US hams were the only ones who had it officially, although in some nations with less rigorous enforcement and regulation 11 meter ham operation was a fact, if not authorized. 11 meter ham operation died when US hams no longer had the band.
T!

Token:

Australia considered 11 meters an amateur allocation until the mid-1970s according to references I have seen (including Wikipedia).

However, You are right... The FCC yanked the band from hams in 1958 thus establishing the origins of the Citizens Band we know today.
 

Token

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Token:

Australia considered 11 meters an amateur allocation until the mid-1970s according to references I have seen (including Wikipedia).

However, You are right... The FCC yanked the band from hams in 1958 thus establishing the origins of the Citizens Band we know today.

The Wikipedia quote is:
“Before CB was authorized in Australia, there were hand-held 27-MHz “walkie-talkies” which utilized several frequencies between present CB channels, such as 27.240 MHz. By the mid-1970s, hobbyist were experimenting with handheld radios and unauthorized American CB radios. At that time in Australia, the 11 meter band was still sued by licensed ham operators, but not available to CB use”. This quote, either an exact duplicate or with minor verbiage variations, appears on multiple web sites other than Wikipedia.

I cannot find anything online supportive of that statement with references. The sources linked with the Wiki quote are dead or never existed. Some other online sources seem to lump 10 and 11 meters together, claiming 11 meters but quoting 10 meters.

Another source says “When the FT-101 production began, 11 meters was a ham band in Australia, and in the interest of efficiency on the production line, separate models for Australia and the rest of the World were not produced”. However, that kind of ignores the fact that no FT-101 had 11 meters as a TX band, and more than just Australia had it (11 meters) as a ham band of some type.

If Australia had 11 meters as a ham band, what were the band edges and power and operations limitations? Since 27 MHz CB was not legal in Australia until the mid-late 70s it is entirely possible they removed a ham band for CB to happen, but I can’t find details of a correlation. I am perfectly happy to change what I said before if some data can be found to counter it, we learn via that process after all, I have no issues with admitting I am wrong if I can be shown it. In fact, below I will proceed to whittle away a bit at what I said, by specifying other nations 11 meter allocations. The US allocations are easy enough to find, 26960 – 27230, CW and phone, exact allocations and power levels within the band depending on license type.

On the other hand, some of the walkie talkies in the Wiki quote worked on 27.240 MHz, that would fit nicely with a ham band topping out at 27.230 MHz.

Below shoots holes in what I said before, only US had an official 11 meter allocation:

Looking at the library here at the house and looking at print sources there were several nations that played around with some kind of 11 meter allocation, either for hams or experimenters, or both. Part of the confusion might be an experimenters / devices allocation in 11 meters that several countries had (often associated with the medicine and science nature of the band as primary), separate from ham radio, and the tendency of some sources to lump hams and experimenters. It looks like the band was maybe never actually allocated to ham specifically by any international agreement but rather as an experimentation band. This might be what gave hams a toe hold there, and made it such a scattered allocation. Also, some nations licensed experimenters and hams as the same at that time, further blurring what was going on.

The US hams were among the first ones to get a real allocation there, and apparently the only ones to get a large one, this might, or might not go with the experimentation nature of the band in international circles.


Canada had a 40 kHz chunk allocated (26960 to 27000 kHz) but this appears, maybe, to be for experimentation primarily. This allocation was possibly removed some time before 1970 (is in a 1967 printing, but not a 1970 printing). As near as I can tell from the same source Australia and New Zealand both had similar allocations (I cannot find specifics of detail, only that allocations existed), but New Zealand also had a CB like service in the 11 meter band in the early 50’s, before the US Class D was allocated. Odd that they would have both ham and CB in the same range, and possible further ammunition for the confusion.

I still contend, most information seems to support, US hams were the driving forces behind usage on this band. Some sources out and out claim that, for example KE3W History “11 meters was a secondary US only allocation”, it is unclear exactly what the source means, but may be driven by the small allocations of the other nations, and very limited overlap with US allocation, leading to little ability to communicate with other nations ham operators. US hams appear to have had the biggest frequency range in the 11 meter band and the most lenient power and operations restrictions. Others were often extremely restrictive and may have been more along the lines of experimenters allocations, much as some US hams have some LW allocations today. Also, most sources I can find today claim or indicate that ham use of 11 meters died when the US hams lost the allocation, but also indicate band use increased with “hobbyist” and sometimes mix the terms hobby and ham. It certainly seems that new gear that allowed 11 meter use (both TX and RX) was not introduced after the US hams lost 11 meters, unless it had already been in development prior to the loss.

Regardless, with regards to this thread and the subject of it, the Yaesu FT-101. The FT-101 was RX only in the 11 meter band as delivered by Yaesu, even those FT-101s delivered in Australia as far as any documentation I can locate indicates. Yes, it was easy to make work in 11 (even the models without an “11” on the band switch), but that was not how it was made and marketed. The “11” on the band switch seems to have been removed and replaced with “AUX” to placate the FCC.

T!
 

c7ellib

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FT-101EE

I purchased this FT-101EE from an estate sale and it does need some work. It has the 11 meter crystal installed and it transmits full power on 11 meters.

Bill
 

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KN6VCN

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I had a small shop during the CB hay days and man I sold hundreds of rocks for 11 meters in a years time we did not mod the units it was just not done I figured out a tube swap for the 101 removing the 4166's and putting a pair of 8950's or M2057's these could be installed in the finals section, now those radios made the watts a pair of 2057's could push well over 300 to 400 watts in SSB out of that package with no lag or voltage drops in the power supply. this was and is a fine radio. I still use an old Swan 600 that has 3 M2057's verses the old sweep tubes in the final section so do not count out the old units
 
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