Something(s) followed me home - old Tempo (Uniden) 2020 station

[N8YX]

Been looking at picking up one of these things for years...high school electronics teacher had one in the late 80s and never could get it working quite right. There are usually one or two sets plus assorted spare parts at Dayton...always passed on them for whatever reason.

Reviews of these rigs are a mixed bag. Some people say you'll always be working on them. Most reviewers are very happy with the receiver, which is one of the reasons I decided to grab the rig.

80-10 plus 15MHz WWV and CB (RX only). I'm very tempted to swap a couple of the 10M segments out for the WARC bands, giving me WWV-80-40-20-17-15-12-11-10A-10B in that order.

Right now the unit is waiting on a couple of parts to make it 100% electrical. Then a nice repaint of cabinets and trim rings...fabrication of a cable for the inbound 8010 remote VFO...and possibly replacing the 4-pin "Y"-configuration SMK accessory connector with a DIN-5 unit.

Pic isn't of my lineup but is representative of the station:

14751

[KG4CGC]

Nice! Looks very Yaesuzian.

[N8YX]

Nice! Looks very Yaesuzian.
It should - they designed the rig!

Think of it as an intermediate offering between the FT-101B/E/F and the 101ZD/901 series. There's a PLL for the major tuning ranges, and a VCO scheme with phase detector similar to that of the 101ZD/901 line...but an analog VFO which tunes over a 100KHz range and uses a drum dial for a readout. (This was supposedly done in the interest of stability.)

2x 6146B for PA, AM generation scheme very similar to that of a 901. No FM or 160M. No notch filter, IF Shift, IF Width controls...no built-in keyer. I think Yaesu was playing around a bit with circuit concepts and licensed the design to Uniden as a trial of those technologies which made it into later rigs.

[PA5COR]

I had the Sommerkamp 2020, same thing, worked fine, good quiet receiver.

[w2amr]

Very cool looking rig.

[kb2vxa]

When you swap crystals to get the WARC bands you may be able to save a 10M segment. The 11M CB RX only is an open circuit on the band switch so the T-R relay won't operate in that position. I forgot how CBers made it function, that is how they restored the relay connection on the band switch, but if you restore it you can swap the crystal for 12M.

[WØTKX]

Google this:

CB tricks tempo 2020 11 meter conversion

:mrgreen:

[N8YX]

Google this:

CB tricks tempo 2020 11 meter conversion

:mrgreen:

A) Jumper the 11M contacts on the two TX switch wafers to the nearby 10M sections (all four connected together);
B) Stagger-tune the driver coils for peaking across the full range
-or-
Add in a slight amount of extra capacitance on the 11M positions, depending on which band segment you wish to convert it to.

Wald, N4PL wrote up a WARC conversion article for these rigs - he sold me some extra parts (including RX and TX Boards) so I can rearrange the segments as needed. 11 will stay in RX-only mode, and I'll play around with everything north of 20M to get optimum Q in the various tank circuits.

Cor's quote:


...good quiet receiver.

Supposedly better than the Kenwood 820 series on the upper bands. I'll be able to do an A/B comparison as I have my TS-820S/R-820 in line at present.

[WX7P]

Cool radio!

I've been down with the retro lately.

Interested in hearing the results of your performance comparisons.

[kb2vxa]

"11 will stay in RX-only mode"
I suggested doing something useful with it, but if you want to waste your rime listening to Radio QRZ it's your rig. (;->)

[AA1OH]

Nice looking rig-I remember going into Henry Radio and wishing for the Tempo One rig, walked out with a National NC-300 as my first "Ham" receiver.

[KG4CGC]

Nice looking rig-I remember going into Henry Radio and wishing for the Tempo One rig, walked out with a National NC-300 as my first "Ham" receiver.

I still have the rusted out chassis on an NC-33 I got when I was 10. It was working until I was 33. Then it got put away and eventually ended up in an outdoor building. By that time I had the fever for the newest offerings from Japan.

[AA1OH]

I had the big brother to the NC-33, A NC-57! 9 tubes!

[N8YX]

An update on the original post:

The 2020, remote VFO and speaker are in service now, having replaced my FL-101/YO-101/SP-101 in the "vintage" lineup. A basic rundown of what was done -

* Replaced the RF Attenuator/Cal pot-switch assembly
* Reworked the input header to the VCO Board
* Fixed a cold solder joint on the VCO Board and aligned the VCO
* Replaced a defective RF transformer on the RX Board - will eventually rewind the stock unit as it's shorted. Replaced a fixed ceramic capacitor to allow the tank circuit to resonate correctly on 80M
* Replaced the stock rear panel SMK 4-pin accessory connector with a DIN-5 type, and wired up an accessory cable to match
* Fixed a loose coupler in the PA bandswitch area
* Cleaned the antenna changeover relay and fixed a broken lead on its socket
* Diagnosed a TX Board condition wherein the 80M drive level couldn't be reduced. This needs further investigation but the rig is usable on all bands now
* Aligned LO, TX, RX, Regulator and Generator Boards
* Physically and electrically rebuilt the external VFO. Additional work needed; more on this later
* Combined parts from a non-amplified Astatic 878 and Drake 7077 mics to get a fully functional high-impedance unit then wired it to the rig
* Verified function of the Operation board, including rework of its connecting header and rotary switch leads
* Applied DeOxIt to every potentiometer and rotary switch in the rig

The local 10M crowd (audiophoolsphiles...errr, ESSBers, all of them) will give me a ration of sh!t if I show up on frequency with something that doesn't sound quite right. (I've done a bit of SSB generator work for the gang, so I better be eating my own dog food...) To a man and woman, they all like the way this rig sounds - a lot more than the FL-101 which it replaced, and which is going on the bench this winter for R&R work.

I still have to figure out why the Remote VFO quit "fully operating", and I think it's due to an intermittent switching relay - an Omron MH6P 12VDC unit, long since obsolete. The non-ZD FT-101 series used these for the same basic functions (i.e., meter switching, T/R control line switching) and after studying the schematic I think it's where the trouble lies.

(Of course, it WAS working - somewhat - before I applied a bit of DeOxIt to the contacts. :( Fortunately, I have another inbound - and can always change the setup over to use a Magnecraft equivalent if that fails.)

At the moment I have my FR-101S slaved to the 2020, albeit in "separates" mode. No way to have the radios run in full transceive operation (like the 101 twins, or the TS-820S/R-820 pair sitting next to them) but it isn't that big of a deal to re-spot the VFOs if they drift. To the Yaesu's credit, once warmed up it stays put on frequency for days on end.

[N2CHX]

Nice rig. I need to get back on HF. The rig is sitting upstairs and I still have a 30' vertical...

[N8YX]

Nice rig.
It's a geezer radio, as one of our infrequent members calls rigs of the period. But it works for its intended (rag chewing) purpose - no way this thing's slicing and dicing on contest weekend.


I need to get back on HF. The rig is sitting upstairs and I still have a 30' vertical...

And I still have crystals for you for that 30M project of several years back.

[kop]

I must have forgotten all I ever knew about R/C @ audio frequencies because altering the input network , C526-C529 / R547 , R549 , R550 has had demoralizing effects at worst and no effect at best . I have changed R551 to 15K and C532 to a 10uf@25V to get a bit more gain but it seems at the expense of low end frequency response .

Better late than never ...