[Johnson] Ranger finale!

[n6kyr at netzero.com]

All:
I completed restoration of my Ranger on Saturday. After completely getting out ALL of the old electrolytics, I carefully shoehorned the new items in. I was most concerned with the h.v. caps but the spacing between the posts of the choke (which held the old h.v. cap) was just the right size to hold the two barrier strips that has the two 100 uF/450 VDC caps and two 100k bleeders. The old cap setup was rated at 10 uFd at 800 VDC. The new set up is five times that at 50 uFd. Additionally, the l.v. cap is now filtering at 100 uFd v. 30 uFd (which was the previous cap). Also, I changed out the PTT relay to something that had three poles vice the two of the original LM-11. Now I can key the unused pilot light located on the left side of the front panel (almost like a built in "on air" lamp).

I also changed out various paper and other electrolytic caps in the xmtr. The only items that I haven't changed out was some of the caps in the audio section, but then again, I don't have the tubes for AM modulation yet (however, a pair of NOS RCA 1614's are on the way from Argentina, of all places). 

In any event, I put in a temporary (fused) line cord and installed all the knobs. Then, I fired it up, thoroughly expectiong the 6AX5 to arc and spark again. Nothing except glowing filaments. YAhoo! After letting the unit settle in, I noticed that the osc indication was jumping around! I did change out both the OA2 and 6AU6 in the VFO so maybe extraneous gases were being zapped. The meter eventually settled down. 

I continued with the tune up procedures. All bands produced a nominal 50-60 watts out! YEESSSSS!!!! But I was transmitting into a 30 watt Radio Shack dummy load so I put some water in a coffee cup to add to the head dissapation capabilities of the load. Worked great! 

In any event, that's about it. Looking forward to getting it on AM and eventually, on the air! Cal, N6KYR. 

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