Mike.. once again many thanks for a job well done. I've finally got around to using this receiver and I can hear a cricket fart in YOUR backyard...very sensitive indeed just using a coat hanger antenna. Always enjoy your videos regarding my repairs, making the overall cost a bargain!! I appreciate your craftsmanship and attention to details. Manytechnicians may can fix a probkem , but few take such time in the details...a rare gift these days. ....a continued fan...Earnie in Tn
These Frogs are pretty well built. The only thing that will truly kill then for good is the IC that controls the display. That can not be had for love nor money! (I believe it is a clock radio IC from the 70s') All the rest can be fixed and maintained. This was my first SW receiver and I still have it. I had to do the VFO adjustment some years ago, and it should really go on the healing-bench for a re-capping. But it still works great! I live in Flanders, one of the places that has as much rain as,say Ireland, and humidity is a problem here. I have a moisture absorber in the HAM shack and that helps. Putting a strong PC fan to blow over the 'salt' in those moisture-eaters lowers the humidity in the room dramatically. A plastic pipe from the moisture reservoir, connected to the waste-water system together with the aforementioned fan and some MacGyvering, makes for a system that keeps the shack bone dry and only needs attention and maintenance every two months or so. Toodles! Paddy
Take care with repetitive pulling and pushing back of the connectors. And after having to deal with several jobs on my FRG 7700, I ran into another problem - the pins on the underside of the cct board began to lift due to pushing back the connectors. Resoldering did the trick, no track lifting thankfully. Worth bearing in mind.
Hey, got to pass along a huge thank you for this video. I am rather new in the Ham world, and I haven't done a lot of work on radios however the back up monitor in our Class A motor home was only working part time. First I blamed the ground, but no help there, then I blamed the plug, but no that didn't fix her. So I tore into the innards of the old thing (2003 rig) and took off the covers. I found many cracked solder joints, so I diligently re-soldered them adding new solder, of course. Well it worked for a year and now we are back to the same behavior, black outs. Now if I just used it for backing up, I could say no problem, but I use it to keep an eye on my towed vehicle, and last year, I lost my Jeep when she broke loose in Utah and drover herself to her demise down a steep embankment over boulders and through the fences. So I guess it is time to remove that old solder and replace it with new, as you advised.
Great video, thanks. My FRG-7700 has developed a non-responsive VFO, so I'll go through all of these steps, commencing with a re-cap and solder joint check and Sony Goop removal. I've also read that a dodgy memory unit can play heck with the PLL module so I'll disconnect that and see what if anything eventuates. I have a good old FRG-7 too, so I guess that will be the stand-in while the 7700 gets a work-over.
+The Radio Shop Whaaaaaat!!!!! Never worked on a frog before. They are nice receivers. I have one myself but have never gotten around to restoring it yet. Still wearing it's coating of protective dirt. :-)
Always wanted one of these receivers, but every one I ran across at ham fests/swaps/tailgates had issues reported by the seller... put me off buying it. THANKS for demystifying this rig, I will set my fears aside next time I run across one!
Hi there. I own a Yaesu FRG-7700 and I was wondering whether you might know where the baseband audio can be located as I want to add a discriminator output to it so I can monitor some digital modes using some decoding software I am running. Thanks and keep up the good work.
Thank you for sharing Mike. When you perform an electrolytic capacitor replacement, do you pull them all out first or do you remove and replace one at a time?
actually there are a lot of electrolytic capacitors in this set, very good quality ELNA industrial capacitors. But after you change them ALL (even in the VCO section!!!) the set will spring back to life. I mean, LIFE. It works like a dream!!!! Also be careful with the frequency meter IC (the OKI made MSM.....) which WILL fail in your radio too. They have somekind of interior design flaw. If it fails, just connect a PIC frequency meter which can count up to 31 MHz, and can substract in realtime 455 KHz from the signal which is fed into the original frequency meter IC, but before the divider by 10 7490. See the schematic.
Hello Mike, I’m watching this video for the second time. Is there another video that shows the result of your work? Like the reception , the better reception on 1MHz etc? Thanks.
Hello Mike, Greetings from California. The narration is great, enjoyed viewing the whole video. I’m getting a FRG-7700 along with FRV-7700 in a week. I also have FRG-7 which was working below par. Then I replaced 3SK40M, MOSFET, thinking that could be the issue. Now, I’m happy at my foolishness as the set is dead. No reception. The audio section is perfect , I could hear some thing, but not receiving signals. Antenna is 45’ single cable in attic. I have full set of electrolytic capacitors, from Canada, ready for ‘recap’ process. Also have a few new 3SK40s. I know how sensitive it is. Any feed back from your side? I’d appreciate it. By the way I’d be visiting BC in April, this year. Are you around BC? Let me know. Thanks and regards.
Maybe in the Netherlands but in the USA all of the FRG series receivers are known as FROG's. Even Fox Tango would agree and they are kind of the definitive worldwide source of info on anything Yaesu. www.foxtango.org/ft-library/FT-Library/FRG7700-FRG7-FRG9600/FRoGs.htm
Love when you do communication receivers and amateur radios. I'm an SWL and your thorough and detailed analysis is priceless.
Mike.. once again many thanks for a job well done. I've finally got around to using this receiver and I can hear a cricket fart in YOUR backyard...very sensitive indeed just using a coat hanger antenna. Always enjoy your videos regarding my repairs, making the overall cost a bargain!! I appreciate your craftsmanship and attention to details. Manytechnicians may can fix a probkem , but few take such time in the details...a rare gift these days.
....a continued fan...Earnie in Tn
Nice to see the old lady back in service.
These Frogs are pretty well built. The only thing that will truly kill then for good is the IC that controls the display. That can not be had for love nor money! (I believe it is a clock radio IC from the 70s') All the rest can be fixed and maintained.
This was my first SW receiver and I still have it.
I had to do the VFO adjustment some years ago, and it should really go on the healing-bench for a re-capping. But it still works great!
I live in Flanders, one of the places that has as much rain as,say Ireland, and humidity is a problem here. I have a moisture absorber in the HAM shack and that helps. Putting a strong PC fan to blow over the 'salt' in those moisture-eaters lowers the humidity in the room dramatically.
A plastic pipe from the moisture reservoir, connected to the waste-water system together with the aforementioned fan and some MacGyvering, makes for a system that keeps the shack bone dry and only needs attention and maintenance every two months or so.
Toodles!
Paddy
Excellent work plus tones of great tips on restoration of electronics..bravo!
Take care with repetitive pulling and pushing back of the connectors. And after having to deal with several jobs on my FRG 7700, I ran into another problem - the pins on the underside of the cct board began to lift due to pushing back the connectors. Resoldering did the trick, no track lifting thankfully. Worth bearing in mind.
This is a common problem in the older Kenwood hf radios as well.
Hey, got to pass along a huge thank you for this video. I am rather new in the Ham world, and I haven't done a lot of work on radios however the back up monitor in our Class A motor home was only working part time. First I blamed the ground, but no help there, then I blamed the plug, but no that didn't fix her. So I tore into the innards of the old thing (2003 rig) and took off the covers. I found many cracked solder joints, so I diligently re-soldered them adding new solder, of course. Well it worked for a year and now we are back to the same behavior, black outs. Now if I just used it for backing up, I could say no problem, but I use it to keep an eye on my towed vehicle, and last year, I lost my Jeep when she broke loose in Utah and drover herself to her demise down a steep embankment over boulders and through the fences. So I guess it is time to remove that old solder and replace it with new, as you advised.
Great video, thanks. My FRG-7700 has developed a non-responsive VFO, so I'll go through all of these steps, commencing with a re-cap and solder joint check and Sony Goop removal. I've also read that a dodgy memory unit can play heck with the PLL module so I'll disconnect that and see what if anything eventuates. I have a good old FRG-7 too, so I guess that will be the stand-in while the 7700 gets a work-over.
James Bowie
They have fantastic reception below 2mhz put a jumper between the sw/bc jack and the sw jack and bypass the filter...
Nice restoration Mike!
Moisture will really mess things up. Good job at getting her back up and running Mike. This is one rig I have never owned or worked on.
+The Radio Shop
Whaaaaaat!!!!! Never worked on a frog before. They are nice receivers. I have one myself but have never gotten around to restoring it yet. Still wearing it's coating of protective dirt. :-)
Mike, if I shut my eyes, I could be listening to Hawkeye Pierce (Alan Alda) - potential sideline!
Always wanted one of these receivers, but every one I ran across at ham fests/swaps/tailgates had issues reported by the seller... put me off buying it. THANKS for demystifying this rig, I will set my fears aside next time I run across one!
That is a varey nice radio i am a tad bit gellus
Thanks for the video It was varey informative.
Hi there. I own a Yaesu FRG-7700 and I was wondering whether you might know where the baseband audio can be located as I want to add a discriminator output to it so I can monitor some digital modes using some decoding software I am running.
Thanks and keep up the good work.
Thank you for sharing Mike. When you perform an electrolytic capacitor replacement, do you pull them all out first or do you remove and replace one at a time?
I always remove one at a time - that way it will be difficult to make a mistake. ;o)
actually there are a lot of electrolytic capacitors in this set, very good quality ELNA industrial capacitors. But after you change them ALL (even in the VCO section!!!) the set will spring back to life. I mean, LIFE. It works like a dream!!!! Also be careful with the frequency meter IC (the OKI made MSM.....) which WILL fail in your radio too. They have somekind of interior design flaw. If it fails, just connect a PIC frequency meter which can count up to 31 MHz, and can substract in realtime 455 KHz from the signal which is fed into the original frequency meter IC, but before the divider by 10 7490. See the schematic.
Hello Mike, I’m watching this video for the second time. Is there another video that shows the result of your work? Like the reception , the better reception on 1MHz etc? Thanks.
Hello Mike, Greetings from California. The narration is great, enjoyed viewing the whole video. I’m getting a FRG-7700 along with FRV-7700 in a week. I also have FRG-7 which was working below par. Then I replaced 3SK40M, MOSFET, thinking that could be the issue. Now, I’m happy at my foolishness as the set is dead. No reception. The audio section is perfect , I could hear some thing, but not receiving signals. Antenna is 45’ single cable in attic. I have full set of electrolytic capacitors, from Canada, ready for ‘recap’ process. Also have a few new 3SK40s. I know how sensitive it is. Any feed back from your side? I’d appreciate it. By the way I’d be visiting BC in April, this year. Are you around BC? Let me know. Thanks and regards.
What chemical did you say you used to remove, or soften the sony bond???
What does a recap job like that cost?? Can't be cheap.
You sound like your from NJ. Are you close?
+spikey911usa
MD/PA border.
MikesRadioRepair Very good, that's close to my job in Paulsboro (somewhat).. I will keep you in mind for repairs.
Sir, You are wrong; the word "FROG"' was, and is used for the receiver FRG-7! I am the owner of the FRG-7. Greetings from the Netherlands.
Maybe in the Netherlands but in the USA all of the FRG series receivers are known as FROG's. Even Fox Tango would agree and they are kind of the definitive worldwide source of info on anything Yaesu. www.foxtango.org/ft-library/FT-Library/FRG7700-FRG7-FRG9600/FRoGs.htm
You guys appear to be saying exactly the same thing ... that all FRGs are FRoGs.
Like the name of the album "Rust never sleeps".....and it does suck.