FT-101 in contest action

[KC9ECI]

Started out the contest with my Icom 706mkIIg and after 5 qso's had an issue with rf feedback and the LDG tuner. No time to troubleshoot so I switched over to the FT-101 and the MFJ 949 and continued on 40m. I was eventually joined by Greg, W9IKU and we shared the frequency and rag chewed a bit during lulls in activity

[N8YX]

An original '101' - not a B or later suffix? Rare bird...

[KC9ECI]

An original '101' - not a B or later suffix? Rare bird...

Yep. Eau Claire radio club auction several year ago. I stayed to the bitter end and was one of less than 18 or so people left. This was the last thing to come out from under a table. Only one other guy bidding and Ellen AF9J egging me on and I got it for $80 or $85. Came with a spare set of tubes. It wa the only thing I bought that day.

[N8YX]

A coworker/ham friend of mine related an experience he had at an area truckstop/CB radio shop in the early 70s: FT-101s were being carted in and out of the place by the dolly full. Estimates put overall sales of the 101/B/E/F series in the U.S. to be in excess of 1 million units, yet at the time there were ~500,000 licensed U.S. hams.

Quite a few CB people in this area used a 101-series transceiver. Another guy south of Canton ran a converted FT-901DM on 11 and the father of a nearby friend had a loaded TR7 - this in 1980 when the rig by itself cost $1500.

As far as I know, none of them ever joined the ham ranks.

[WØTKX]

Better than running a sweep tube 11 meter amp... cleaner signal!

Well, unless you fooked with it.

[W5GA]

The 101 is a neat rig to play with, but I wouldn't recommend using it in something like CQWW down in the middle of the crowd...the rx will fold up like a wet blanket.

[kb2vxa]

"Quite a few CB people in this area used a 101-series transceiver."

Interesting you brought that up, just clip the yellow wire and the relay will close with the band switch in the 11M position. I knew The Breeze, a CBer smarter than the average bear who used one and the matching FL-2100 amp when he need that extra kick. The kid really knew what he was doing, AM sounded fine as did SSB with not a speck of cereal, that is to say a clean signal without splattering across the band like some others that sounded like they were using a cheese grater for a microphone IF you could figure out which channel they were on.

Once upon a time I had a 101EE but not licensed for HF it made a nice receiver, a pretty good one too. BTW I like my Mark but I'm rather annoyed at now being sans antennas but maybe some day I'll get even.

[n2ize]

With proper modification those 101's can sound awesome on AM with a nice freq response from DC right on up to the upper fringe of human hearing and beyond.

[kb2vxa]

The only problem with that is excessive occupied bandwidth and since "AM" is carrier inserted sideband SSB would be broad as a barn door as well. That's what got the WSSB crowd in northern NJ in trouble when numerous complaints were filed and the FCC sent out wolf tickets. Not a problem for those who know what an EQ or something as simple as a switchable M derived pi section low pass filter is for when you don't have a good slice of the band all to yourself.