[Boatanchors] Johnson Ranger R35

Sun Feb 23 07:32:24 EST 2014

Hi Wayne,

Hold on a minute there. That high voltage power supply with that bog 
honking bleeder is for the final plate supply and (I think) part of the 
modulator. I do not use the modulator so that part of it is foggy and I 
am not going to pull the manual. The VFO and all of the low level stages 
in the RF and audio section run off from the "low voltage" power supply 
- a separate entity. For a CW op that high voltage power supply and 
associated large bleeder is only for the final plate supply.

I recapped the power supplies but did not remove the bleeders in mine. I 
got rid of some heat and power drain by pulling the audio tubes. The 
rest of the Ranger runs on that *other* power supply. Transmitters like 
the Ranger, DX-100, and others are so dang heavy for their size because 
of all the iron and copper bricks in the multiple power supplies and the 
modulators. Remove those and you are left with only a little more weight 
than an HW-101 without it's power supply.

73,

Bill  KU8H

On 02/22/2014 10:35 PM, hwhall at compuserve.com wrote:
>    Thanks for the comments, all!
>
> I re-read what the Handbooks (plural) had to say earlier this evening. Besides draining off the filter caps when power is turned off, there were two other reasons I saw for pulling all that power down a big bleeder.
>
> (1) To ensure that a necessary amount of current was drawn from the supply to make the filter choke inductance always met the critical inductance, a condition which keeps a choke-input filter section from acting more like a capacitor-input filter (which lets the output voltage with light loading to float closer to the peak rectifier output voltage than a well designed choke-input filter will do).
>
> (2) The above also contributed to reducing the peak current through the rectifier tube(s) so that more average current could be drawn for a given tube type without exceeding its max current ratings.
>
> Since the pubished modification solid-stated the rectifiers, the advantage of (2) isn't an issue anymore. As long as the other stages (VFO, etc.) & components don't mind the extra max supply output voltage or the (probably larger) swings between key-up and key-down supply voltage, then the supply regulation of (1) becomes no issue. If so, then the removal of hefty bleeder loading isn't obviously an example of a mod that fails to understand the original designer's wisdom.
>
> It's good to learn something new or relearn something every day. :-)
> ?
>
>   Wayne
> WB4OGM
>   
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: hwhall &lt;hwhall at compuserve.com&gt;
> To: boatanchors &lt;boatanchors at mailman.qth.net&gt;
> Sent: Fri, Feb 21, 2014 9:11 pm
> Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] Johnson Ranger  R35
>
>   I have a question about removing R35. It's the bleeder resistor on the power
> supply, I see, and I assume that the original designers selected that for a
> particular reason, otherwise they wouldn't be wasting all that energy n heart. I
> assume that it was intended to provide the minimum load on the power supply when
> the transmit key was open, improving the voltage regulation. Are there no
> problems with removing that min load and the increased swing in supply output
> voltage?
>   
>    
> Wayne
> WB4OGM
>   
>   
>   
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jbrannig &lt;Jbrannig at verizon.net&gt;
> To: Mr Bill Mellema &lt;n3wm at yahoo.com&gt;; Boat Anchors &lt;boatanchors at mailman.qth.net&gt;
> Sent: Fri, Feb 21, 2014 5:20 am
> Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] Johnson Ranger  R35
>   
>    
>    
>    
> Bill,
> Try this site.  I followed Phil's advice on my Ranger restoration and it
> works very well.
>    
> http://www.ad5x.com/images/Articles/Ranger%20Mods.pdf
>    
> 73,
> Jim
>    
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mr Bill Mellema
> Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2014 3:53 PM
> To: Boat Anchors
> Subject: [Boatanchors] Johnson Ranger R35
>    
> I have a nice Ranger and need to replace R35 the large cause of heat. I'm
> looking for a simple solution and would appreciate any inputs.
>    
> Thanks In Advance..
>    
> Bill N3WM
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