The AM Forum

Has anyone tried the FT-1000D with and/or without the mods..  I was curious, if the FT-1000D worked well, with any decent modulation on AM..?


Any thoughts?   I was hoping, that this transceiver may work decently on AM with decent modulation, without mods done..

Yes, highly recommended. Many have made these mods and the result is 1hz -5kc audio with the Collins mech filter installed in the 455kc IF strip.

Chuck/K1KW, Gary/INR, Bill/DUQ, Dave/ZRF and I are using modified FT-1000D's.  The receivers are superb. The 10kc mech filter (+ - 5) also works on RX.

73,
T

How bout the FT1000MP mark V?

Hola John,

As you probably know, the MP is a completely different radio from the D. The price of USED D's are sometimes as much or more than new MP's.  I think the MP was discontinued in favor of newer digital nightmares.

I've heard a couple opinions that it wud be much more difficult to hi-fi an MP.  I think I've heard of someone doing it at one time, though.

There's no doubt that the D is a top ricebox choice by AMers, DXers and corntesters alike. It's amazing considering it's late 1980's technology.

Some of the new riceboxes are supposedly quite good too, but no clue about modifying for AM.

Much time and effort went into the FT-1000D AM mods and they produce near perfect results. It's one of the few radios that offers dual diversity receive with a simple mod as well as one of the best receivers..

T

I believe the Mark V stock sounds better than a 1000D stock. I have 1000D and was surprised to
find  how restricted the low end response was, there was sharp cut off below  300hz. I did a few of the cap changes on
the transmit board
and it is much better now,  I still need to do filter mod to bring up the high End. Nice rig, but if you want to use
stock rig, i think the Mark V may be a better choice.

73, Chuck W3FJJ

I picked up a FT1000MP Mark V for a song.  Sounds ok on AM but not great.  Highs are pretty restricted also.  I haven't tried feeding the audio into the phone patch, nor have I even looked at the skizmatic to see what's up round the balanced mudulator... just wondering if anyone's done any mods for it.

John,
I would be real interested in how you rate the FT1000 RX to the Cubic R3030

K1DEU, has some mods/info  on the MP on his webpage,
http://hamelectronics.com/
Follow the link to k1deu->ft1000MP

Frank, I've not done a side by side on 'em.  There's several things about the FT1000MP I *dont* like, including its automatically (and apparently un-overridable) going to the LSB passband when using the sync detector.  And the passband tooning doesn't really permit going to the upper sideband of an AM signal.

There are a bazillion features that are very useful for CW or slopbucket, few of which work in the AM mode (both xmit and receive).  Still, it was well worth my $500 investment  ;D  I'd NEVER pay the going price for one, though.

Wow, Great deal! John.

How did you get it for $500? Did it need fixing?  Maybe you threw in a shushi dinner?

T

I was screwing around in the shop one sat nite and it being the middle of summer, there were no AM QSOs on so I sauntered on down to the macaroni net.  Some old buzzard checked into their swap with this thing, and it so happened he lived here in MD.  So I sent him an emai and scored it because he didn't want to ship it.

THe only thing wrong with it is the computer (RS232) interface board isn't working.  Mint otherwise  ;D

Wow.  I think that's still a $1500 rig, no? 

Guess you better offer to be net corntrol for a few nights to pay 'em back, caw mawn... ;D

T

On the 1000MP Mk V there's a Murata ceramic filter that is used on AM tx and rx.  It is 6 KHz which is why on AM the rig is restricted to almost 3 KHz audio.  If you flip the rig over and peer through the grill on the bottom you can see it on the PC board.  It's a teeny black box about the size of a pencil eraser and has five leads.  It is up near one corner of the board.   You can get similar filters from Mouser that have a wider bandwidth.  Getting the filter out is a bit of a PITA.  You have to flip the board over and use a solder sucker to get all the solder off the pins and pull the filter out.  I am very vague on the details because I did all this a couple years ago.

K1DEU as mentioned earlier, has information on removing the filter and replacing it in his balanced modulator feed web page linked off this address:

http://www.hamelectronics.com/k1deu/pages/ham/transceivers/pages/ft-1000/ft-1000_index.html

He writes about the 1000MP but the Mk V is close enough so his instructions are still useable.   

It's a good idea to get the service manual which is available on line as a large pdf file here:

http://www.va3cr.net/manuals/MarkVServivceManual.htm

If you do the direct bal. mod. feed, pull the Murata ceramic filter and put in a wider filter, and finally, tap the product detector bringing the audio out to the back panel to a phono jack, you'll have a pretty good low power analog AM exciter because you'll bypass all the stock Yaesu boo boo ham audio assumptions and distortion with a slightly wider non-TIS* sounding signal.

The PD tap follows the standard method found elsewhere on this site (http://amfone.net/Amforum/index.php?topic=4870.0) using a small .1 uF 50 v. metal poly cap in series in a two conductor shielded lead to a phono jack mounted on the back panel.  So, you have to make two holes in the back and mount two phono jacks, one for the bal. mod. audio input and the other for the PD audio output.  The PD audio is high enough to drive any old tube p.p. AF amp that has a phonograph preamp.  The audio quality is excellent and the freq. response only limited by the width of the ceramic filter you put in.

Rob
 

*Low power Traffic Information Stations operating at the high and low ends of the AM broadcast band are required by FCC to limit their audio response to 3 KHz.