wythall radio club

      The mighty FT 817

I will if I may recount fairly  briefly a tangle I had with the 817 from Vic (SK)  Mostly mechanical issues as opposed to electronic component  failures RECEIVE AUDIO or rather LACK OF.

I was so captivated in reading David’s fault chasing in Pete’s FT817, component level fault finding at its  best!

Many Congratulations David- hope the final issue is resolved.

The rig was a early one which  originally had the limited transmit range on for example the 40m band. It had been opened and extended and that is where the problems began.

Clearly working fine for Vic, it gave no audio output although like Pete’s it gave audible beeps upon key depression.

Top cover removed restored full audio, just placing the cover back without securing it gave full audio but re-inserting the fixing screws  and inverting the unit cut the audio! Upside down- no audio, right way up- Audio! 

With the lid  fully unscrewed by trial and error, the issue was narrowed down to just one mounting screw causing the audio to cut out. Leaving that pesky screw out (Front right hand side) you could position it anyway and it was fine!

The screw in question must be shorting something to ground, nothing appeared obvious. Close examination showed that screw to be fractionally longer by two thread pitch so  I filed a microscopic amount off the screw- job done ..or so I thought.

DC CONNECTOR ISSUE

Next problem: the well-known and documented dc plug to socket intermittency.  Whilst the  plug can be obtained it is usually the pcb mounted socket at fault. ‘Unobtanium’ of course so bodge (a safe bodge I hasten to add) was to sleeve the dc plug with the thinnest  metal I could find- actually of another dc type plug with a wider barrel. This gives enough barrel to (worn) contact to restore happiness to the user.

“Job a goodun”.. Unless of course the user disconnected the dc power lead in which case the bodge most likely would fell apart- literally leaving the sleeve behind.

As the rig was to go to a purchaser I fitted a permanent connector into which the original dc lead fitted. I consider the purchase of one of these dc adapters to be a sound investment for the 817 and 818 which used the same ‘unobtanium’ socket for dc power. Two versions are shown, one twice the cost of the other but protection of the rather fragile dc connector is ensured. Both fix to the rig by the screw that previously gave a chassis earth connection. Existing DC lead fits or Power Pole to suit.

Please Note:

Both types do however impede the proper  fitting of the Yaesu vinyl protection cover.

DISPLAY FADE

Lastly the display with moderate  panel movement partially faded and the right hand side  was unreadable.  

When this rig had been wide-banded by ANOther, the very fragile cable pcb to display ribbon cable had been over stressed and   was held together with a touch of blu-tack!   Where the ribbon cable is inserted in the connector it is push fit-no clamp and had to be cleaned of all the blue gunge. Fortunately all was well when it had been treated.

You do  need to take great care with these  ribbon cables which are essentially pcb tracks on thin acetate or similar.

Ian M0IDR

Ed. we await David’s (G7IBO) next instalment of  his journey to  get the 817 working again.

GOOD LUCK TO ALL IN THE FAMOUS WYTHALL RADIO CLUB XMAS CONTEST 2024.

THIS IS NOW, FROM 10.00 A.M. THIS MORNING , UP AND RUNNING