Yaesu FT-7 help?

[pitbull3825]

New to this sort of system did a little research before I bought it but did not know I may need to run a different antenna?

[Night Crawler]

What type of antenna do you have and what bands do you plan on using the FT-7 on?

[drdx]

That's a old ham radio (hf rig) and only does SSB and CW (code). Has it been modified for cb? It, in stock form, will not operate on the cb bands at all, so you'll need a different antenna to listen around and a license to use it on the ham bands. If you have it and are just bored, plug any antenna in and listen around the bands, especially on 80m. You can use a long wire for an antenna but if you are in a pinch, plug your cb antenna in only half way, where the shield is not connecting, making your cb antenna kind of a longer wire antenna. You should hear traffic on 80m LSB around 3.8 and above. DONT transmit on those bands without the right antenna or a license.

-drdx

[pitbull3825]

Running an antron99 withe ground plane now. No idea what bands. Like it says new new new learning every day.I know not operate on Ham with out a license but like to listen to see if it's some thing I may want to get in to. What type of antenna would you suggest? Name brand ?

[drdx]

For those lower bands, a wire works about as good as anything short of spending big money. Maybe make yourself a dipole, consisting of 2 pieces of wire 65 foot long each, suspended horizontal, fed with coax or ladder line. Get an antenna tuner, and that antenna would work fine on all of those bands, but keep in mind if you're not licensed you can't talk on them. For just listening, just plug your antron in half way into its antenna jack and see what you get on the 80, 40, and 20 meter bands. On 80 and 40, put it on LSB. On 20, use USB for listening.

If you're currently on cb, that's on 27 mhz, or what is called 11 meters. The bandswitch on that radio reads 80,40,20,15,10 and those are ham bands. CB is above 15 meters and below 10 and not covered on that radio unless someone rigged it to do it.


-drdx

[pitbull3825]

I have a dipole on the back of my garage already I really had no luck with it on 11 meter. But What the FD-7 comes I can just plug in the coax half way and try it? And how hard is it to get licensed. I'm just a simple auto mechanic.LOL

[drdx]

The plug it in half way deal is just a quick and dirty way to listen until you have a regular antenna up. A cb antenna is so short that it will attenuate your receive and you won't hear much, but pulled half way out it acts like a long listening antenna. A ham license is easy to get these days, just look for a club in your area. You don't even have to learn the morse code any more.

-drdx

[pitbull3825]

What sort or brand of antenna should I look for?

[drdx]

A dipole will more than get you going but if you have money to burn: Gap, Cushcraft, Hustler, Mosley, the list goes on and on.

-drdx

[pitbull3825]

Money? What the heck is that? I know of a few people in town here with beams. Will something like that be of any use for this or just on AM

['Doc]

The antenna is just to get a signal into the radio. Antennas are frequency related, lower frequency or lower band means longer antennas. Higher frequency or bands means shorter antennas. Lots of 'room' in that, and longer antennas can work on higher frequencies, if it isn't getting complicated enough already.
Receivers just aren't all that picky about antennas, they aren't 'part' of the circuitry that makes a lot of difference with them. Transmitters are a completely different story, antennas are very important with them. So, just a length of plain old wire will work as an antenna for just listening. A very rough rule of thumb (that's a R.O.T. byt the way, I like that name!) is longer is better to some absolutely ridiculous point. Either of the antennas you have can be used for listening. Unscrewing the connector on the coax (as suggested) is one way of turning a particular 'style' of antenna into just a longer chunk of wire, sort of. It works, and you can tell when you do it right cause it's very easy to hear the difference.
I haven't thought of an FR-7 in years! never had one, but heard a few of them. What was the 'larger' version of those, the FR-77, FR-70?
- 'Doc

[Night Crawler]

What sort or brand of antenna should I look for?

If you plan on getting a license and using that radio and don't know how to make your own antenna this would be the cheapest way to go to cover 80-10 meters.

Antenna
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Tuner
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[ca2vmp]

there is a way to make it work on CB , is made changing a reference Xtal , just remove one of the xtal of 10 meter band and replace it with a 41.4875 Mhz xtal.

[pitbull3825]

Thats interesting. But I have four mobile radios and three of them are already 10 meter radios. I really interested in plugging this one in and listening. It should be here today

[drdx]

10 meters is totally dead at the moment. It shares the same conditions that cb does. Once conditions pick up, listn on 28.400 USB. If you want to hear something on that radio you'll need to go to the lower bands as mentioned above. I'm glad someone chimed in with the mod info to put it on cb, but the radio doesn't do AM, so it would be a great ssb rig but no AM.

-drdx

[pitbull3825]

10-4 drdx I gonna do some listening. Hopefully it arrives today. I found some one local that has a hoop antenna I can borrow.

[pitbull3825]

there is a way to make it work on CB , is made changing a reference Xtal , just remove one of the xtal of 10 meter band and replace it with a 41.4875 Mhz xtal.
If I do this aint 11 meter way lower than this Mhz???

[drdx]

Yes, 11 mtrs, aka "cb" is way lower, but the way the radio uses it that may be what it needs.

Let's see....freq. counters, crystals, no am. This deal is getting involved to just have a radio to talk on cb with. Why not just keep this radio as-is until you can use it on the intended bands and get something like a ranger 2950, regular cb, or ham rig that will do what you want right out of the box. By the time you go through all the trouble, you will end up with just as much invested in that ft-7 as you would with a more modern and capable radio.

-drdx

[pitbull3825]

True. But I already run a 2970DX. I don't play lol. I just new to the side band thing.

[drdx]

The 2970 has sideband. Comparing the ft-7 to the 2970, the only thing the ft-7 brings to the table is the lower ham bands. Other than that the 2970 does much more, including FM and split, AM and 12 meters, something the yaesu probably doesn't have due to 12m not being an open band at the time it was made. Your 2970 probably does more power than it also. Still, down on the lower bands, with a wire antenna, you will have some nice listening on the lower bands. If you really want to play, move up to a full coverage hf rig like a kenwood,icom,yaesu that does it all complete with 100 watts of clean sideband and great receive. Most of the hf rigs starting in the early/mid 80's up to now are easy to convert to 11m and do a lot for what they cost.

-drdx

[pitbull3825]

True but not knowing what freaks to listen to it gets a little frustrating. I am learning. Thanks

[ca2vmp]

yup , you can play with the xtals , so that way you can go out of band . ive seen it on a lot of radio modified in some ships , especially fishing vessels .

[pitbull3825]

Good to know thank you very much.

[ca2vmp]

for a first time a g5rv jr will do the trick , just use about 18 meters rg 58 coax from the antenna to the radio that will give you an almost perfect match , 1,2 to 1,5 from 40 meters to 10 , also a good portable antenna for CB [Please login or register to view this link] ive built 3 of them i have 2 on the tower and one on my go kit , i used mine this weekend on a field day , with around 80 hams , good antennas for multiband operation .