This was my 2nd Radio in 1992. I took it and flew to Hawaii in 1992 for the CQ World Wide SSB Contest from NY State. We operated it on Battery Power just North of Hickam Field on Oahu... So many memories of that radio and that trip. It was solid and I sold it in great condition about 20 years ago to a new Ham for his first radio. Solid performer. Your Radio is in Great conditon !! When I had this radio I lived in an apartment and I was using the AEA Isoloop. 10-40M Magnetic transmitting loop. It worked great. Enjoy your great find !! 73
I use the FT-747GX every day. nice tidy rig. It is mostly used for VarAC and Winlink with VaraHF software modem. One handy note for UK foundation license holders. there is a small easy mod to make the RF power output variable on SSB from about 300mW to 10W - Very carefully take out fixing screws in the Filter board, one clamps metal ground strap, one holds board down to a pillar under it. Gently lift the board out and cut one leg of diode D-009 then refit the board, ground strap & screws. You can then use external power meter to set Your SSB TX power output accurately by turning the MIC gain and DRIVE control knobs. You can now use it safely within Your 10W power restriction. . Of course for anyone into QRP operation this will let You run proper QRP (5W or less) on 160 - 10m bands. This radio has UNI-directional CAT control. It accepts CAT commands IN from PC to RADIO. but does NOT report QRG, BAND etc from the radio back to the PC. Some software will report this as a CAT error but this is due to the software not supporting Uni-directional CAT operation, not a fault in the radio. Correct Serial COM port settings fo the 747GX are 8-N-2 that is 8 data bits, No parity Bit and 2 stop bits at 4800 baud. If the VFO knob stops working or frequency is jumping about when turned it is easy to replace the rotary encoder with an HW-040 5 pin rotary encoder used for Arduino projects. My rig had duff encoder when I got it, fitted the HW-040 encoder in my rig and it now works reliably. Not a fancy bells & whistles radio but does the job very nicely. 73 de Hairy Paul, MM7WAB PS: With the D-009 mod done it also works sweet for FreeDV, SSTV, FT8,FT4, JS8call, JT65 and many other modes with FLdigi and other software Well worth grabbing if You see one at a good price.
OMG I see your KDK in the background! I'm glad someone did a review on the FT-747, I've always wondered if these ~$200 radios are worth looking at for beginners.
This is the same rig as the Heath SB-1400-1 (made by Yaesu for Heath). The only difference is that the Heath does not have a speaker in it so the front panel layout is a bit different. It uses all of the same accessories as the FT-747 including the Yaesu FM Unit-747 plug-in FM board. Heath had a matching power supply, the SBA-1400-4, which has the speaker built in and is actually a Yaesu FP-757HD in a Heath wrapper. (edited for typos)
I’ve got one of these that’s kind of my main rig. Not so good for portable as it really needs 13.8V and struggles with 12V I picked up the FM module for it, which works well, but never used it. Mostly I use it for CW (not that I’m good at it) where the split operation comes in handy Picked up a broken tech special for spares. Might see if I can resurrect it. The Xiegu X108G is the rig I have for operating portable. It’s nice in that it puts the full 20W out even at 11V
@@vkradio1656 yeah. Probably the next radio I get will be one of those. They don’t come up all that often second hand. I tend to buy used, or as I call it, I buy other people’s _broken dreams_ I’ve managed to get the cat control working on the 747 with a cheap 3.3V usb to serial card and a couple of FETs to lift it up to 5V. Works OK on WS-JTX but the rig control on FLDIGI didn’t seem to have the right protocol for my radio
@@GreyGhost-r4z Morse Ninja is my hero. I just need to get on the air more often. Been spending more time with a guitar in my hand than a chunk of brass :-)
This was my 2nd Radio in 1992. I took it and flew to Hawaii in 1992 for the CQ World Wide SSB Contest from NY State. We operated it on Battery Power just North of Hickam Field on Oahu... So many memories of that radio and that trip. It was solid and I sold it in great condition about 20 years ago to a new Ham for his first radio. Solid performer. Your Radio is in Great conditon !! When I had this radio I lived in an apartment and I was using the AEA Isoloop. 10-40M Magnetic transmitting loop. It worked great. Enjoy your great find !! 73
I use the FT-747GX every day. nice tidy rig. It is mostly used for VarAC and Winlink with VaraHF software modem. One handy note for UK foundation license holders. there is a small easy mod to make the RF power output variable on SSB from about 300mW to 10W - Very carefully take out fixing screws in the Filter board, one clamps metal ground strap, one holds board down to a pillar under it. Gently lift the board out and cut one leg of diode D-009 then refit the board, ground strap & screws. You can then use external power meter to set Your SSB TX power output accurately by turning the MIC gain and DRIVE control knobs. You can now use it safely within Your 10W power restriction. . Of course for anyone into QRP operation this will let You run proper QRP (5W or less) on 160 - 10m bands. This radio has UNI-directional CAT control. It accepts CAT commands IN from PC to RADIO. but does NOT report QRG, BAND etc from the radio back to the PC. Some software will report this as a CAT error but this is due to the software not supporting Uni-directional CAT operation, not a fault in the radio. Correct Serial COM port settings fo the 747GX are 8-N-2 that is 8 data bits, No parity Bit and 2 stop bits at 4800 baud. If the VFO knob stops working or frequency is jumping about when turned it is easy to replace the rotary encoder with an HW-040 5 pin rotary encoder used for Arduino projects. My rig had duff encoder when I got it, fitted the HW-040 encoder in my rig and it now works reliably. Not a fancy bells & whistles radio but does the job very nicely. 73 de Hairy Paul, MM7WAB PS: With the D-009 mod done it also works sweet for FreeDV, SSTV, FT8,FT4, JS8call, JT65 and many other modes with FLdigi and other software Well worth grabbing if You see one at a good price.
Great little radio love mine which is in use with an atu 100 also..
OMG I see your KDK in the background! I'm glad someone did a review on the FT-747, I've always wondered if these ~$200 radios are worth looking at for beginners.
They are!
This is the same rig as the Heath SB-1400-1 (made by Yaesu for Heath). The only difference is that the Heath does not have a speaker in it so the front panel layout is a bit different. It uses all of the same accessories as the FT-747 including the Yaesu FM Unit-747 plug-in FM board.
Heath had a matching power supply, the SBA-1400-4, which has the speaker built in and is actually a Yaesu FP-757HD in a Heath wrapper.
(edited for typos)
Interesting, never knew that, thanks for the info John.
I’ve got one of these that’s kind of my main rig. Not so good for portable as it really needs 13.8V and struggles with 12V
I picked up the FM module for it, which works well, but never used it. Mostly I use it for CW (not that I’m good at it) where the split operation comes in handy
Picked up a broken tech special for spares. Might see if I can resurrect it.
The Xiegu X108G is the rig I have for operating portable. It’s nice in that it puts the full 20W out even at 11V
Hi Chris, thanks for the feedback.
I run the G90 mostly portable, great radio.
73's.
If you want to get better at CW search for "Kurt Zoglmann" on YT. See you on the bands.
@@vkradio1656 yeah. Probably the next radio I get will be one of those. They don’t come up all that often second hand. I tend to buy used, or as I call it, I buy other people’s _broken dreams_
I’ve managed to get the cat control working on the 747 with a cheap 3.3V usb to serial card and a couple of FETs to lift it up to 5V. Works OK on WS-JTX but the rig control on FLDIGI didn’t seem to have the right protocol for my radio
@@GreyGhost-r4z Morse Ninja is my hero. I just need to get on the air more often. Been spending more time with a guitar in my hand than a chunk of brass :-)
@@MidlifeRenaissanceMan me too. Had a qso last week and the guy was sending 30 wpm non stop. My brain started to tremble 😆