Last update: Monday, 10-Mar-2014 15:33:41 GMT

April 22, 1999

I forgot to add a few things here. Pictures of the switch boards will be available soon, and hopefully the instructions as well. I put a vertical antenna up this past weekend (temporarily... I'm waiting for my tower to arrive), and played around with the radio a bit. I'm very pleased with the filter kits. The final product works well, and looks great (I probably said that already ;-)). Look for me on 10m this weekend.

April 13, 1999

The FT920 has arrived. Though I have not yet put it on the air (I have not set up an antenna at my new house), I decided to open the radio up to see what the filter kits look like installed. In my own strange little way, I find a certain artistry in well designed electronics, and the filter kits are a work of art. George has done a fabulous job of integrating the boards into the radio, and I am very impressed.

Each filter switch board takes up a little space on either side of the chassis, just behind the front panel (in the open spaces on the sides of the radio that are visible when you remove the top cover). A few wires are routed from the boards to the main circuit board to put up the RF signal paths from the original filter locations, and to allow the boards to get some power. The design is such, that you will require only one toggle switch to switch between filters (as the radio will automatically route to the proper kit depending on the mode you select). The toggle switch mounts directly to the bottom of the radio using the existing silver colored screw. The location of the switch is nice, but could be moved further to the front if you fabricated a slightly longer mounting bracket. As it stands, the switch is easily accessible now.

There are no mechanical switches to the boards (other than the toggle switch), so the only obvious sound of selecting a new filter is the change in the audio as the bandwidth changes.

The filter switch boards are a perfect addition to a fabulous radio. Nearly all of my complaints about the FT920 are now addressed in one fashion or another. Of course I'd still love to have dual receive capability, but I'll live with what I have.

My thanks to George Cutsogeorge (W2VJN) of International Radio for his efforts in making this kit happen.

April 08, 1999

My FT920 is on it's way back from International Radio with filters and switch kits installed. I have been working on the office/shack at my new home, and hope to have the radio installed and on the air in a week or two. Then I will offer some opinions about the filter kits. I am extremely excited about this modification to my FT920 and eagerly await it's arrival.

On another note, my new FT100 has arrived. I have decided to create a new FT100 page that will be very similar to this one in both appearance and content.