The Yaesu FT-707 an analogue HF transceiver, with which I have a special connection and is one of my restoration projects. Below you can read how I became acquainted with this set and how my restoration project is progressing.

Don't feel like reading my whole story? Use the links in the menu to jump directly to the chapters with technical restoration information.

When I got my full licence in the 1980s, called the A licence in the Netherlands, I was allowed to use shortwave as a radio amateur. I did not yet have an HF short-wave transceiver and was also more than interned, when I got a tip that someone in a nearby village had an HF transceiver for sale.

I went looking and came across a nice good working Yaesu FT-707, including, FC-707 antenna tuner and YM-35 hand microphone. The set turned out to be converted and used for the 27 Mc. For this, the four 10-metre crystals had been replaced for 11-metre crystals. If I bought the set, I would get the original crystals with it. However, the seller would then like the four 11-metre crystals back. After I checked the set was working properly, the sale was quickly concluded and I was the proud owner of my first HF transceiver.

For the time, this was a nice modern and compact HF set with all HF bands between 10 and 80 metres including e WARC bands and LSB, USB, AM and CW modes. My set was also equipped with the optional CW narrow filter.

The FT-707 is a fully analogue design set, equipped with a VFO with a range of 500 kHz. That is sufficiently wide for all HF amateur radio bands except the 2 MHz wide 10-metre band. This is divided into four sections of 500 kHz, designated 10A to 10D on the band switch. Hence the four 10-metre crystals, which were replaced for 11-metre crystals in my set.

For accurate frequency readout, the FT-707 has a built-in digital frequency counter. Handy, but not indispensable. The set also features a nicely lit analogue tuning scale and a marker generator, with which the outer ring of the large VFO knob can be set to the kHz.

Designed in the early 1980s, the FT-707 is suitable for both mobile and stationary use.

Two versions are available. The FT-707 with a 100-watt balanced transistor output stage and the FT-707S QRP version with a 10-watt balanced output stage. The output stage is mounted on the back of the set in both models. The 100-watt output stage has a large cooling block with built-in fan and therefore protrudes quite a bit. The 10-watt output stage is less deep and has no fan, so it does not protrude.

Arriving home, I first laid out the set to admire the complex analogue construction and replaced the four 11-metre crystals with the original four 20-metre crystals.

The seller was keen to keep his power supply, which was also not an original Yaesu power supply. For me heem problem, as I already had a nice heavy 25 amp Philips power supply, which I could test the set on.

The FC-707 antenna tuner has a built-in dummy load and after setting everything up properly, I came to test the set. Everything appeared to work nicely and, with 100 watts of output power, the dummy load got hot quickly.

Of course, I also needed an HF antenna. Ns some trial and error, I chose an inverted-V dipole that I could string from the side of my parents' house to the edge of the front and back garden.

The local installer, who had also mounted the tube for my 2-metre Yagi antenna, was called to mount a pulley at the top of the tube. This way, I could easily hoist my HF dipole to the top. The bottom of the tube was near my bedroom, aka shack, so the antenna cables could be kept short. Now the inverted-V dipole still had to be connected.

The FC-707 antenna tuner has an asymmetrical coax output. This gave me the idea to fit the inverted-V with a Colins air balun and feed the antenna with coax cable. This allowed the coax cable to run right down the steel tube without any problems.A construction that worked well for many years without any problem.

If you have worked on 2 metres with 10 wat for years, 100 watts of HF seems a lot, but I soon found out that it is not that bad. With 100 Wat, I could join in nicely on HF. I regularly made Sunday afternoon connections with the 'runaway' Dutch in the US after the morning church service moved to the shack with a cup of coffee, pointed their big beams at the Netherlands to connect with a good kilowatt of HF power the motherland

After being inactive for many years, sometime in the late 80s early 90s, I decided to sell my first Yaesu FT-707 including tuner. I was wise enough to keep my heavy 25-amp Philips power supply.

Wanted and found, Yaesu vintage HF transceiver, antenna tuner and desktop microphone from the 1980s

After becoming an active transceiver again in 2021, I started to long for the analogue simplicity of an FT-707. So I started looking around the second-hand market, what was on offer. There turned out to be more people interested in this beautiful vintage equipment, and several times I saw a good working Yaesu FT-707 change hands for an amount well above my budget.

Eventually, I came across two affordable faulty ones whose output stage had blown. A 100-watt FT-707 and a 10-watt FT-707S that I could take over for a good price. For little money, I bought two nice restoration projects. A few months later, I came across another FT-707 with the same defect. I was able to swap this set for a two-metre that I had bought second-hand but did not like. In a restoration project, it is always handy to have extra copy so you can swap faulty parts or whole units.

Then it was sleuthing for the FC-707 antenna tuner. Due to its long range and small housing, the FC-707 antenna tuner, this is still a popular tuner and I saw bids for these tuners are also high.

Still, I managed to buy two copies for a reasonable price. The first copy was the bare tuner without the cabinet and without the built-in SWR meter, but with the built-in dummy load. The second copy was a complete and in the good condition FC-707 tuner. I built the complete tuner without cabinet, the first copy, in a matching metal case.

My first FT-707 was equipped with the YM-35 a nice sturdy hand mic. On HF, I found a hand mic a bit less useful for logging contacts, which was still an obligation in the 1980s. Yaesu sold the for that time nice and modern YM-38 table microphone, which I bought new and later sold together with my first FT-707.

Of course, after buying the FT-707 transceiver and FC-707 tuner, I couldn't resist also looking for the YM-38 table microphone and the YM-35 hand mic. I have not yet been able to find the YM-35 hand mic, but I did find a somewhat battered YM-38 table mic for a reasonable price.

The previous owner had tried to provide the microphone with adjustable preamp. A hole for a potentiometer had been drilled in the base for this purpose. Having marvelled at the attempt to provide a low-impedance microphone with a high-impedance preamp, I simply removed it. The original impedance transformer that also allowed the 600 Ohm microphone to be connected to a high impedance input unfortunately proved to be unsalvageable and I also removed it. The FT-707 and many other Yaesu transceivers have a low impedance 600 Ohm microphone input, making this transformer unnecessary as well. As I have no cover cap input wire, I left the potentiometer in place.

I haven't found the YM-35 microphone yet. Do you have a spare Yaesu YM-35 hand microphone lying around that you would like to get rid of? Let us know.

• All text, photos, diagrams and other content: Copyright Bart PA7ELF