In this video we take a look at a damaged Yaesu FT-990. Support us on Patreon; / theradioshop Contact Information; gokarters.com/smf/index.php?to... Discuss this on my website; www.gokarters.com/smf
Thank you for the video!!! Lol....second time watching it. I still use and enjoy my old ft990. I sold my ic756 pro and kept the 990 because the audio is smoother sounding on the listening end and it is a tough old tank of a radio......and no ridiculous menus!!!
Automotive antenna nut socket sets are a must have for any radio repair bench. They come in a assortment of 2 and 4 pin sockets in different sizes. There is one that "almost" fits microphone nuts. All you need to do is file a tiny bit off the tips to make them a little narrower. They are great for stuck nuts because they have a 3/8 square drive on them for a ratchet.
Love your ham radio equipment repair, adjustment and trouble-shooting videos. I always learn something new about test equipment use and various techniques from these videos that can be used on different makes and models of other equipment. I also admire your calm demeanor when you "tear down" equipment and it's all in pieces! Dr. Stan KZ8G
The 3 solder joints at 19:03 at the Regulator Transistor. Was common problem on the ft990. I have a ft990. that had the same problem. Thanks for the video
Look on the bright side Buddy. After pulling those boards in and out so many times, those edge connectors are going to be polished like factory new. No intermittent problems there for at least the next ten years. 73 Doug.
To run spray down a control shaft, fit a piece of clear plastic tubing around the outside part of the control shaft and squirt some fluid in, let it flow in. You can use a small screwdriver to turn the inner shaft and help the fluid flow in.
Buddy, thank you for this nice and good repair. Here in Germany De-ox-it is very rare and expensive, but i use it often. I love to see the alignment, very good work.
another great video buddy. glad to see another radio that is fun to fix. crazy how they had to put in boards that plug in. like they were trying to say something like, "your radio will be a computer someday". lol again thank you for putting these up to help us all learn from. 73, ad0am
I have some issues with my own FT990, so working through it. FWIW with the optional reference oscillator it is easy to adjust it out of the radio with a separate 5v supply.. a bit messy with the onboard one....
I really like it when you add text overlay explaining that it's within tolerance or that it's 400Hz because I'm so dumb, I didn't know which scale you were reading. I didn't understand what a TXEO was or why it would help. I figured it was an extender card to make adjustments easier.
Hi Jeff. No one is dumb, Folks just lack the knowledge. The scale I was reading is fro 0 to 1 +/-/ That means one kilohertz plus or negative. So .200 would be 200 hertz . So now if you go back and watch that part perhaps it would be easier for you. The TXCO is a little box that has a heater in it. This keeps the reference crystal at a certain temperature so it does not move around in frequency. For this radio it is an option and does not have one. So if the radio heats up during transmit the frequency could change a bit. Causing you to have to adjust the VFO a bit. Thanks for pointing that out as I should have explained that a bit more in detail.
great video Buddy. Another caution for field day is the power source. Portable power sources can be dirty and unreliable . A friend once had a rig damaged from a malfunctioning generator .
Thanks Todd. You are correct on power issues. When I was with BARC we had a generator company supply one to us. It would run a small community. And the operator stayed there with us the whole time to keep a watch on things.
Nice video. researched it in advance of recapping my ft-990. On the regulator board and the comment that all three 330uf caps under the shield can go to ground is not correct. Two of them have positive ends that go to ground(C9011 and C9014). The third C9010 is installed positive to ground. Just follow the white dot for placement as it indicates the "-" negative pol of the caps.
😄 hi am new here ..love your vids verry helpful .. i like to find a good working yeasu 990 at reasional price .. so far ebay hasnt none .........i keep checking i guess .. but again keep up ur good videos
Probably the most common cause of field day disasters is someone tripping over the antenna cable. I was operating QRP on a folding table in a local park this year with a long wire strung up in a tree hooked to a home made 9-1 unun. The antenna was an accident waiting to happen. Luckily the the 4 conductor 18 ga security wire I was using broke at the unun. Narrowly avoiding a crash onto the hard pavilion floor. Banana plugs work good for long wire trip release points. Using 1 push on adapter for so-239 at the back of your rig might help cut down on field day mishaps but I'm not sure how badly they compromise SWR and power loss.
Excellent ... I have a FT 990 and your repair and adjustment / alignment of the frequencies was very informative. Good video ... do you still do repairs ?? Lots of test equipment there ....
Thanks Tony. The 990 is a basic stripped down model of the 1000. To this date I have yet to find extender cards for these. Looks like they were only distributed to authorized Yaesu repair shops. I am sure you can find those connectors to make your own. But Yaesu used several different types of cards in their rigs.
I was searching these cards all over the world. If you can find them, they are sold tripple their weight in gold. I even tried to make a set my own but you need a set of three different cards and the edge connectors used went out of production by the manufacturer several years ago. Last call for orders where around 2004 or such. So the one and only way to build a set of adapters your own is to find a FT990 that is beyond repair and salvaging the connectors from it. Lucky me, I could borrow these PCBs from a near by repair shop. But I have to buy my next rig from them :)
great video, thanks for sharing. I was thinking about buying one of these radios as a back up radio, but not sure if iam just taking on another old radio which is going to need lots of work or fail, as my old ic 775dsp did. Not being able to do any repairs myself any more. Wonder what you think about these old 990,s compared to many other older rigs. 73 brian zl3xdj.
@5:17 from the marks on the shaft and the nut it's clear someone with big hands has been there before you. Might explain the stripped thread on the allen screw
Hi! Nice repair! I do have a 990 on my bench for repair and every time you fix one thing, something else falls off... Lucky me, I could borrow the service PCBs, but I am currently stuck at the problem, that the meter is not showing anything but S-values or nothing. So I cannot follow the service manual on aligning the PA that makes heavy use of the internal meter for that steps. It is a fine rig, worth repairing, but my special unit is really trying to step on my nerves :)
The cause for the issue might be the meter function switch or its board, so I probably have to disassemble the front unit. I cannot reach inside to probe there. On the other hand, the voltages come out of several other units and I need to check if they are supplied correctly. However, S-Meter functionality works fine but PO, IC, VCC do not. The others I have not checked for now. I had set the unit aside to restore two TS-780 units, but if I remember correctly, all signals lead me to the power unit and I probably have to "extract" that one as the next step.
Hi Buddy. At 32:57, it looks like the Freq Error knob is set to 1k. That would make the error needle sitting just shy of 100 hz instead of 10 hz on the bottom scale. Make sense? Great channel !!
@@TheRadioShop I hear that !!! I've made major errors in my tech videos too. There is no place better to learn about the 1200 than your channel !! Thanks for all of the hard work, Buddy !!
Ive got a ft 990 with no tx on all bands.. its on ref 10.4856 mhz freq ok. Any ideas, from your Wisdom.. on your radio maybe a gentle heat gun application may work. Like they do on bike fenders. Gary
I recently purchased a Yaesu FT-990 from a close Ham friend who assures me the rig has only been operated on 110 volts AC. When I connect it and attempt to power it up, I get nothing. The rig end of the power cable is showing 119.7 volts AC (as checked on a Knight K-810 Volt Ohm Meter)and the fuse on the rear panel (5 amp.) has good continuity (on the same meter). When the power button on the rig is depressed, NOTHING happens. Nothing lights up and the rig is cold. I opened up the rig to determinie the position of the 110/220 voltage switch, THERE WAS NO SWITCH, just a hole that evidently never had anything mounted in it (no scaring of the metal, etc.). One of the internal fuses (10 amp.) had good continuity but the other was too difficult to access due to a tight wiring harness over it. I am unable to check the DC input as I do not have the DC cable (T9018320) and have been unable to find it on any of the commercial Ham stores' websites or on eBay. I could test the DC input with test leads, but the pinouts are not in the operating manual, nor can I find them online. Is it possible another Yaesu transceiver has a compatable DC power cord? I also own an FT-450D and a FT-857D with DC power cable, but am unsure of their compatibility with the FT-990, so I am reluctant to try them. And, even if it powers up with DC, that would still be a workaround to AC operation, which I desire. There is obviously something wrong here. Can you help me?
I have a 990 and have a question. When turning my RF power knob down, the lowest output I can get on AM is 10 watts. Is there a way I can turn my low power down to 2 or 3 watts and maintain my 25 watt high power?
Definitely not designed with the "after-market" repair person in mind. Always learn some new little technique watching your videos Buddy! 73 - Dino KL0S
I’m finishing up a complete restoration of the first two-way radio I ever owned, a Lafayette HB-444/25A 25 channel CB transceiver. On the bottom of the outer case there was a large sticker showing the tube placement and identifying several internal adjustments. That label is more than 50% deteriorated. Does anyone know of any vintage CB restoration sources that might have reproductions of such labels? Or, if someone has this radio, with the label intact, perhaps I can get a clear photo?
Help, who can! HELP!!! I'm from Belarus, my yaesu ft 990 is out of order ... ((I really need a service manual, namely the RF voltage through the amplifier cascade ... I can't find it anywhere .... 73!
Помогите, кто может!!! HELP!!! Я из Беларуси ,у меня вышел из строя yaesu ft 990...(( очень нужен сервис мануал, а именно ВЧ напряжение по каскадом усилителя...не могу нигде найти....73!
Please email me if you can help me I have a Yaesu FT 990 the finals are burnt out, and having a hard time finding a tech who knows this radio. Please if you could point me to a source to purchase the fr output board,..then I could simply R/R very much appreciate your input.
Thank you for the video!!! Lol....second time watching it. I still use and enjoy my old ft990. I sold my ic756 pro and kept the 990 because the audio is smoother sounding on the listening end and it is a tough old tank of a radio......and no ridiculous menus!!!
Excellent Work doing these fine adjustments.8/28/2021
Automotive antenna nut socket sets are a must have for any radio repair bench. They come in a assortment of 2 and 4 pin sockets in different sizes. There is one that "almost" fits microphone nuts. All you need to do is file a tiny bit off the tips to make them a little narrower. They are great for stuck nuts because they have a 3/8 square drive on them for a ratchet.
Thanks for that tip Mike. You would think as long as I have been doing this I would had bought a set lol.
Love your ham radio equipment repair, adjustment and trouble-shooting videos. I always learn something new about test equipment use and various techniques from these videos that can be used on different makes and models of other equipment. I also admire your calm demeanor when you "tear down" equipment and it's all in pieces! Dr. Stan KZ8G
Thank you Stan. It is my pleasure to share the little knowledge I have.
The 3 solder joints at 19:03 at the Regulator Transistor. Was common problem on the ft990.
I have a ft990. that had the same problem. Thanks for the video
Always enjoy watching you repair gear. Regardless of what you work on, always plenty of great "shop" tips
Thank you very much.
Fabulous repair Buddy. You prove nothing is impossible!
Thank you Billy
Very nice repair. I learn a lot from your repair videos, mostly from those older radios which I cannot afford being in college lol.
Thanks Angel. A lot is just common sense repair. After you done a few it really gets easy.
Look on the bright side Buddy. After pulling those boards in and out so many times, those edge connectors are going to be polished like factory new. No intermittent problems there for at least the next ten years. 73 Doug.
Good point Doug!. Should not be a problem with that lol. Thanks for that.
To run spray down a control shaft, fit a piece of clear plastic tubing around the outside part of the control shaft and squirt some fluid in, let it flow in. You can use a small screwdriver to turn the inner shaft and help the fluid flow in.
Very good point and tip my friend. Thanks
Buddy, thank you for this nice and good repair. Here in Germany De-ox-it is very rare and expensive, but i use it often. I love to see the alignment, very good work.
Thank you. Yes DeoxIt is expensive here also but is good stufff
Very nice video and really enjoy your relaxed and easy going style. Thanks for making all these great videos!
Thanks you very much for watching
Patience and expertise.
Thanks letting me ride along!
Reminder; yes repairs are possible.
-bob. Kq2q
Thanks Bob. Really takes patience on a rig like this one.
I liked the video! Being a tech/ ham radio buff. And an owner of a
Problem ft 990 myself. Good job. Having extender cards helps..
Great repair/restoration job Buddy. thanks for sharing.
Thank you LL
another great video buddy. glad to see another radio that is fun to fix. crazy how they had to put in boards that plug in. like they were trying to say something like, "your radio will be a computer someday". lol again thank you for putting these up to help us all learn from. 73, ad0am
I thank they wanted no one outside the factory to service these. Did not even make the extender boards available, Thanks
Good video I have had a few 990s over the years they are a very good radio not the best but very dependable and they do everything well.
I have some issues with my own FT990, so working through it. FWIW with the optional reference oscillator it is easy to adjust it out of the radio with a separate 5v supply.. a bit messy with the onboard one....
I really like it when you add text overlay explaining that it's within tolerance or that it's 400Hz because I'm so dumb, I didn't know which scale you were reading. I didn't understand what a TXEO was or why it would help. I figured it was an extender card to make adjustments easier.
Hi Jeff. No one is dumb, Folks just lack the knowledge. The scale I was reading is fro 0 to 1 +/-/ That means one kilohertz plus or negative. So .200 would be 200 hertz . So now if you go back and watch that part perhaps it would be easier for you. The TXCO is a little box that has a heater in it. This keeps the reference crystal at a certain temperature so it does not move around in frequency. For this radio it is an option and does not have one. So if the radio heats up during transmit the frequency could change a bit. Causing you to have to adjust the VFO a bit. Thanks for pointing that out as I should have explained that a bit more in detail.
Very nice video Buddy. It is always no fun if we have not the right extender at hand but we can't have these for any radio.. Thanks for sharing
Hi Peter. Yes very hard without them. Thanks for stopping in my friend.
GOOD JOB BUDDY YOU THE MAN !
Thanks Dana
great video Buddy. Another caution for field day is the power source. Portable power sources can be dirty and unreliable . A friend once had a rig damaged from a malfunctioning generator .
Thanks Todd. You are correct on power issues. When I was with BARC we had a generator company supply one to us. It would run a small community. And the operator stayed there with us the whole time to keep a watch on things.
Nice video. researched it in advance of recapping my ft-990. On the regulator board and the comment that all three 330uf caps under the shield can go to ground is not correct. Two of them have positive ends that go to ground(C9011 and C9014). The third C9010 is installed positive to ground. Just follow the white dot for placement as it indicates the "-" negative pol of the caps.
😄 hi am new here ..love your vids verry helpful .. i like to find a good working yeasu 990 at reasional price .. so far ebay hasnt none .........i keep checking i guess .. but again keep up ur good videos
Wow, this is one of the best videos you have done, Buddy. Your attention to details is amazing. Thank you for sharing it with us. 73 de K7RMJ Frank
Thanks Frank. It was a bit time consuming. Lot of work behind the scene on this one.
Quality work!
Much appreciated!
Excellent job buddy. Wow that is really tedious to make the frequency adjustments.
Nice job as always buddy big thumbs up my friend
Thanks allan
Probably the most common cause of field day disasters is someone tripping over the antenna cable. I was operating QRP on a folding table in a local park this year with a long wire strung up in a tree hooked to a home made 9-1 unun.
The antenna was an accident waiting to happen.
Luckily the the 4 conductor 18 ga security wire I was using broke at the unun. Narrowly avoiding a crash onto the hard pavilion floor.
Banana plugs work good for long wire trip release points. Using 1 push on adapter for so-239 at the back of your rig might help cut down on field day mishaps but I'm not sure how badly they compromise SWR and power loss.
great job and video
Thanks
Excellent ... I have a FT 990 and your repair and adjustment / alignment of the frequencies was very informative. Good video ... do you still do repairs ?? Lots of test equipment there ....
I like to see these plug-in vertical boards, it makes things well structured but without board extensions, it is really no big fun!
Yes they make for a nice design but service is tough.
Great repair, thanks for sharing! Are the extender cards specific to the Yaesu FT990, or would the same ones work on all Yeasu models from that era?
Thanks Tony. The 990 is a basic stripped down model of the 1000. To this date I have yet to find extender cards for these. Looks like they were only distributed to authorized Yaesu repair shops. I am sure you can find those connectors to make your own. But Yaesu used several different types of cards in their rigs.
I was searching these cards all over the world. If you can find them, they are sold tripple their weight in gold. I even tried to make a set my own but you need a set of three different cards and the edge connectors used went out of production by the manufacturer several years ago. Last call for orders where around 2004 or such. So the one and only way to build a set of adapters your own is to find a FT990 that is beyond repair and salvaging the connectors from it. Lucky me, I could borrow these PCBs from a near by repair shop. But I have to buy my next rig from them :)
very nice work. what does a radio like this go for in today's market? do you feel they are still worthy even with today's updated technology ? thanks
great video, thanks for sharing. I was thinking about buying one of these radios as a back up radio, but not sure if iam just taking on another old radio which is going to need lots of work or fail, as my old ic 775dsp did. Not being able to do any repairs myself any more. Wonder what you think about these old 990,s compared to many other older rigs. 73 brian zl3xdj.
@5:17 from the marks on the shaft and the nut it's clear someone with big hands has been there before you. Might explain the stripped thread on the allen screw
Very true
Handy men !!
Hi! Nice repair! I do have a 990 on my bench for repair and every time you fix one thing, something else falls off... Lucky me, I could borrow the service PCBs, but I am currently stuck at the problem, that the meter is not showing anything but S-values or nothing. So I cannot follow the service manual on aligning the PA that makes heavy use of the internal meter for that steps. It is a fine rig, worth repairing, but my special unit is really trying to step on my nerves :)
Have you checked the meter circuit?
The cause for the issue might be the meter function switch or its board, so I probably have to disassemble the front unit. I cannot reach inside to probe there. On the other hand, the voltages come out of several other units and I need to check if they are supplied correctly. However, S-Meter functionality works fine but PO, IC, VCC do not. The others I have not checked for now. I had set the unit aside to restore two TS-780 units, but if I remember correctly, all signals lead me to the power unit and I probably have to "extract" that one as the next step.
Hi Buddy. At 32:57, it looks like the Freq Error knob is set to 1k. That would make the error needle sitting just shy of 100 hz instead of 10 hz on the bottom scale. Make sense? Great channel !!
You are correct. Sometimes working behind a camera is not a good thing lol.
@@TheRadioShop I hear that !!! I've made major errors in my tech videos too. There is no place better to learn about the 1200 than your channel !! Thanks for all of the hard work, Buddy !!
What a pain in the rear end! What was Yaesu thinking?
Ive got a ft 990 with no tx on all bands.. its on ref 10.4856 mhz freq ok.
Any ideas, from your Wisdom.. on your radio maybe a gentle heat gun application may work. Like they do on bike fenders. Gary
Hi, what padding do you use when you did your alignment?
I recently purchased a Yaesu FT-990 from a close Ham friend who assures me the rig has only been operated on 110 volts AC. When I connect it and attempt to power it up, I get nothing. The rig end of the power cable is showing 119.7 volts AC (as checked on a Knight K-810 Volt Ohm Meter)and the fuse on the rear panel (5 amp.) has good continuity (on the same meter). When the power button on the rig is depressed, NOTHING happens. Nothing lights up and the rig is cold. I opened up the rig to determinie the position of the 110/220 voltage switch, THERE WAS NO SWITCH, just a hole that evidently never had anything mounted in it (no scaring of the metal, etc.). One of the internal fuses (10 amp.) had good continuity but the other was too difficult to access due to a tight wiring harness over it. I am unable to check the DC input as I do not have the DC cable (T9018320) and have been unable to find it on any of the commercial Ham stores' websites or on eBay. I could test the DC input with test leads, but the pinouts are not in the operating manual, nor can I find them online. Is it possible another Yaesu transceiver has a compatable DC power cord? I also own an FT-450D and a FT-857D with DC power cable, but am unsure of their compatibility with the FT-990, so I am reluctant to try them. And, even if it powers up with DC, that would still be a workaround to AC operation, which I desire. There is obviously something wrong here. Can you help me?
What camera do you use for the circuit board close views? I have a Logitech I use in my shop, but can't see the detail like you can.
Hi Ron. I have several that I use. I believe the one used in this video was the Dinolight Premiere. Thanks
I have a 990 and have a question. When turning my RF power knob down, the lowest output I can get on AM is 10 watts. Is there a way I can turn my low power down to 2 or 3 watts and maintain my 25 watt high power?
i have have one but has low output and showing high swr on all bands not sure where to start looking.
Great video. I just bought one. Are the extender cards available?
Unfortunately not, they were only released to repair centers.
@@TheRadioShop typical manufacturer thinking. They don't want anyone to get a piece of the repair dollar, even AFTER they stop supporting them.
Definitely not designed with the "after-market" repair person in mind. Always learn some new little technique watching your videos Buddy! 73 - Dino KL0S
You are right Dino. Not your average radio. Very time consuming to work on. Thanks for the comment
I’m finishing up a complete restoration of the first two-way radio I ever owned, a Lafayette HB-444/25A 25 channel CB transceiver. On the bottom of the outer case there was a large sticker showing the tube placement and identifying several internal adjustments. That label is more than 50% deteriorated. Does anyone know of any vintage CB restoration sources that might have reproductions of such labels? Or, if someone has this radio, with the label intact, perhaps I can get a clear photo?
Made me sick hearing how that beautiful FT-990 fell from a table and hit the ground face-first. Makes you wonder how it happened.
Nice job but i bet it is old hack for you as many as you've done. Thanks
Thanks, yes was a breeze for me but takes time.
Help, who can! HELP!!! I'm from Belarus, my yaesu ft 990 is out of order ... ((I really need a service manual, namely the RF voltage through the amplifier cascade ... I can't find it anywhere .... 73!
Помогите, кто может!!! HELP!!! Я из Беларуси ,у меня вышел из строя yaesu ft 990...(( очень нужен сервис мануал, а именно ВЧ напряжение по каскадом усилителя...не могу нигде найти....73!
Please email me if you can help me I have a Yaesu FT 990 the finals are burnt out, and having a hard time finding a tech who knows this radio. Please if you could point me to a source to purchase the fr output board,..then I could simply R/R very much appreciate your input.
Glad I don't have one of those.
LOL, Agreed. The extender cards are non existent
EU2AAQ...73!
Ugh, modules like my Fannon Fanfare 880.
Yep, really makes it tough.