Why this page?
As can be gathered from information elsewhere on this web site, I confess that I have developed a liking (some might say obsession) with the collection, operation, restoration and maintenance of certain "classic" amateur equipment, in particular that manufactured by Yaesu in Japan. I am not going to try to explain this obsession, but I will try to rationalise some the objectives I wish achieve with this part of my web site.
You should not assume that I am of the opinion that modern state-of-the-art equipment is inferior to the older gear featured on this site. Modern equipment in most respects outperforms the older equipment, particularly in the harnessing of digital techniques (I am thinking primarily of DSP here) - the equipment featured here can be thought of as significant stepping-stones from the early pioneering days to where we are now in terms of technological development.
Owning and using classic radios can be thought of as a challenge for a number of reasons :-
The equipment is old - usually at least 20 years old, and at an age where commercially electronic equipment is considered "life expired". Very few things in life improve with age, and radios are no exception to this. Now we all like to confound so-called "experts", don't we?
In the confounding of the experts mentioned above, one uses and develops certain skills. Quite apart from the pure satisfaction (and that is a large proportion of the appeal, in my opinion) of so doing, these skills may derived from other areas of life, or conversely can spill over into other unrelated areas of life, having been developed in the pursuit of this aspect of the amateur radio hobby. That goes a long way to fulfilling the "self-training" aspect of the amateur licence, in my book.
Also, it is quite common for these skills and for the knowledge gained to be disseminated amongst others in the amateur radio community, or perhaps even over into other areas of life in general. What I like to call "giving something back". A laudable aim in itself, and it also increases the satisfaction mentioned earlier.
In the discussion and demonstration of certain aspects of the operation, maintenance, restoration and repair of these radios, I wish in my own small way to contribute to the greater enjoyment of this particular aspect of amateur radio. I hope you find it of some value!
Finally, I have to admit that there is probably more than a little nostalgia involved here. It is quite common for people to speak of their "formative years" - a difficult-to-define period when we as people basically become the person we will be for the remainder of our days. I believe that this is a phenomenon which manifests itself in many ways, and in my case my "amateur radio formative years" were in the 1970s, and my collection of radios from this era probably demonstrate a subconscious affinity to this period of my life. You, dear reader will have to make up your own mind on that score, and decide for yourself how important, significant, or otherwise that is!
Acknowledgement:
As this is a web page on a web site, then clearly without the Internet, this page would not exist. The Internet itself is a wonderful resource for information relating to all aspects of the material covered here, and has been a source of inspiration for this whole project.
In particular there is the "Fox Tango" group - a group which grew up long before the Internet was available to the public, and whose objectives were seemingly very similar to my own. From its early "duplicated" newsletters sent out to members by "snail mail" to its massive presence on the Internet, this group is the "de facto" source of information on all matters relating to Yaesu amateur radio equipment, and its part in this story is acknowledged unreservedly.