Upgrading a Yaesu FRG-8800

February 29, 2020 Moddler

Upgrading my Yaesu FRG-8800 communications receiver with a VHF module and an FM wide module.

A few months back I got myself an FRG-8800 off eBay. A friend of mine has such a receiver and I just had to get myself one aswell and started setting up big antennas and listening to whats flying around us. The FRG-8800 is controlled by a microprocessor and was introduced 1984. The frequency ranges from 150kHz to 30mHz, with the internal VHF module 118mHz to 173mHz is added. The receiver can also be controlled via a serial port, but i have not tried that yet.

The “smaller brother” of the receiver is the FRG-7700, they share some accessories.

These are the accessories compatible with the FRG-8800:

DC-8800 (a DC power cable kit for 12V)
FF-5 (a low pass filter)
FRA-7700 (an active antenna)
FRT-8800 (an antenna tuner)
FRV-7700 (external VHF module for somce VHF coverage)
FRV-8800 (internal VHF module)
FM wide module (internal module for enabling FM wide mode).

I got the FRT-8800 together with the FRG-8800 because I use a 100 meter copper wire as an antenna and the tuner can be used to match the antenna to the frequency. The internal VHF module and especially the FM wide module were very hard to come by, but I bought a VHF module on eBay for 100€ and a new-old-stock FM wide module from R&L electronics in Ohio for 15$.

This is the front panel of the receiver.

The receiver is opened from the bottom.

The inside is not very packed (yet). There is an empty space on th PCB for the FM wide module.

This is the NOS FM wide module. The article number of the kit is D3000378.

The info-sheets are separate english and japanese. Scans can be found here: Japanese and English

The module is pushed onto the clips and connects directly to the header on the PCB of the receiver.

The VHF module is quite a bit larger compared to the FM wide module. It has a separate input for a VHF antenna and a switch for attenuation. A spare connector inside of the receiver is plugged into the module.

The VHF module slides in from the rear side of the receiver, replacing the metal cover from the rear.

This is inside of the receiver, viewed from the top. Notable is the switch next to the cpu on the right. It can switch between automatic and manual mode for scanning. Either the receiver stops scanning when the signal is stronger than the adjusted squelch or it simply keeps scanning.