[Boatanchors] Ranger1 w/ keyer? (part-2)

[manualman at juno.com]

Never had an issue with harmonics, pink slips, neighbors banging on the
door. Actually never heard of anyone having a harmonic issue using the
Johnson TR switch. But sometimes you have to blame something.

In stock form, the Johnson TR switch, covers 80 through 10 meters. A few
folks have modified the output coil to cover 160. I did a sweep of three
Johnson TR  switches that I had many years ago. Don't remember why I had
three. I only have one now unless the others are hiding under the work
bench. On mine, their gain dropped rather rapidly below 3.5 MHz. On the
high end, I had one where the gain started to drop about 22 MHz and the
others around 25 or 26 MHz. By 29 or 30 MHz, gain was at unity or below.

They do run hot partially due to the tube rectifier in the power supply.
I solid state the power supply years ago so "hotness" has been reduced.
The added gain can be annoying because it also raises your noise floor
and sometimes tends to degrade audio. I've also used the Johnson TR
switch on my Johnson Thunderbolt (4-400's in the final) with great
results.

If you're creative at home brewing, adding a TR Switch even on the inside
of a Ranger cabinet, can be a doable project. Would just have to add an
output jack to the receiver on the back of the chassis. (Shutter! drill a
hole on the back of the chassis! Ha!)

For a 100 watt or less transmitter, there probably are several low-mu
triodes that can be used to mimic the Johnson design. ARRL Handbook and
QST had a number of TR switch designs.

Pete, wa2cwa


On Sat, 9 Mar 2024 18:56:11 -0600 Rob Atkinson <ranchorobbo at gmail.com>
writes:
> Harmonics are certainly an issue if they are detectable at a 
> distance
> especially via skywave and worst of all, not in a ham band.
> 
> The EFJ switch (I have never owned one) runs hot I'm told, and it 
> also
> doesn't cover 160 m. while the Ranger 1 does.  But that last part 
> may
> not be a deal breaker for some operators.
> 
> 73
> 
> Rob
> K5UJ