(Image from RadioWorld) I've had my FT-102 for a while, and it gets used occasionally. One of the things that makes it difficult for me to use in day-to-day activities is the fact that it is an old school HF rig, so it has a single VFO built into it. To operate split, you need an external VFO. Of course, an external VFO was sold as part of the FT-102 line. That external VFO is the FV-102DM. It's actually a digital synthesizer with battery-backed memories and stuff like that. They come up for sale on eBay every once in a while.
The FT-102 was delivered about 5:30 this evening, Houston time. It has been set up and preliminary tests are that it works well. I'll be giving it a workout over the next few days.
I have two updates from previous posts. First, Mal just called and said my FT-102 is ready. The problem appears to have been a bad 10 MHz crystal reference oscillator. It wasn't putting out enough signal so the phase comparator wasn't working so the PLL wasn't locking up. I should get the radio back in a week or two, I just have to (gladly!) pay for the repair.
Last week, I finally scraped the money together to send my FT-102 back to NC4L to be repaired. He thinks it might be an easily-fixed voltage regulator, and we'll soon know for sure.
Last night, Dr. Mal Eiselman and I spent an hour on the phone going over my radio and the news is pretty uniformly bad. There is no loose connection or anything that I'm confident I can fix in the radio. The problem is that the local oscillator board is not working. So, it's back to the good doctor for repair.
The one bright spot is Dr. Eiselman whose efforts to assist me are much appreciated even though they were ultimately unsuccessful. I can definitely recommend NC4L as the guy to fix FT-102's.
About a year ago, on March 30, 2012, an acquaintance of mine, Don Culbertson K5LDD died. Although he had had cancer, my understanding is that he died of a heart attack. Since he had been sick, he had discussed with his wife who was to help her dismantle his ham shack, their home network, and various related things, and the person that he suggested help her with it was me.
