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Vintage Amateur and Military Radio Amateur/military receivers and transmitters, morse, and any other related vintage comms equipment. |
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4th Oct 2020, 6:47 pm | #1 |
Diode
Join Date: Sep 2020
Location: Bath, NE Somerset, UK
Posts: 4
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Yaesu ATU's
Just pondering on the accesories that were available for the FT101B-E series.
There was a scope (YO100/YO101) an external VFO (FV101B), a linear (FL2100B) and a speaker (SP101B) made to match the lineup at time. When the 101ZD and 901/902 came along there were essentially the same range made (YO901, FV101DM, FL2100Z and SP901) and the FC902 ATU I wonder why Yaesu never made a "FC101" to match the 101B-101E line-up at the time? Any thoughts? Dave |
5th Oct 2020, 12:41 pm | #2 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: near Reading (and sometimes Torquay)
Posts: 3,086
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Re: Yaesu ATU's
The clue is that the FT101Z was actually an FT901 - an entirely different design.
The point being that the FT101 series had racked up a lot of respect, so they started by calling the new model FT101Z to make it look like it was just a better FT101. Being a different design the FT101Z aka FT901 needed a new and different range of accessories. |
5th Oct 2020, 6:50 pm | #3 |
Heptode
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Newmarket, Suffolk, UK.
Posts: 611
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Re: Yaesu ATU's
Im a bit confsued
There were TWO models; the 101Z (in a number of variations) and the 901 with various suffixes (which later begat the 902) It was not "aka", they are different radios. How different I don't know. The 901 was sold as "upmarket" compared to the 101Z But I agree the "101" had marketing advantages, they have just resurrected it with the FTDx101D and MP so it must still have "value" 73 Fred G4BWP |
5th Oct 2020, 7:05 pm | #4 |
Heptode
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Newmarket, Suffolk, UK.
Posts: 611
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Re: Yaesu ATU's
To address the original question
My opinion is that in the era of the FT101 to 101E "SWR" and matching were not the great obsessions they later became. Back then people tuned their rig into the match that the antenna presented, a PI tank output stage can match to a range of antenna impedances above and below 50 ohms Later with the onset of completely solid state transceivers, including the PA, antenna matching really became important and ATUs (if that is the correct name? AMU>?) were more in demand Early SS PAs were somewhat fragile so people became concerned about the antenna matching to the PA closely I think Trio-Kenwood evolved over a similar timescale. I cant remember if the TS520 had a matching ATU or not but earlier models didn't. The AT230 came along with the TS530/830 Also I think in earlier times amateurs were more likely to make an "ATU" and not buy it, so much less demand. I was licenced in 73 and I cant even remember owning an "SWR" meter until 1979, maybe a cheap "CB" type 2 years before which was more used for the built "field strength" meter. 73 Fred G4BWP |
5th Oct 2020, 11:04 pm | #5 |
Nonode
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Surbiton, SW London, UK.
Posts: 2,801
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Re: Yaesu ATU's
In the FT101A-F era, an external counter would use discrete components (perhaps
early TTL) driving Nixie tubes, the size and cost would be high and not offer 12 volt operation. By the time of 101ZD, LSI chips and 7 segment LED displays were cheap. |
6th Oct 2020, 9:28 am | #6 |
Heptode
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Newmarket, Suffolk, UK.
Posts: 611
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Re: Yaesu ATU's
Costly or not Yaesu had an external digital display for the FT101 series which could be used with some other models (FTdx401)
It is the YC601 and there was a later "B" version TTL logic and Nixie tubes The "B" could also be used as a standalone frequency counter 73 Fred G4BWP |