[Johnson] Ranger 1

[Brian Carling]

There is also a resistor that needs to be replaced going to 
the VFO.  I think it is like 18 K ohms.
You need to move it OUTSIDE The VFO box from what I was told.

There may be more to this. I expect that an expert or two 
on here will chime in and help you some more!

> Adrian,
> In addition to my stock comments below.  I replaced all the silver micas in 
> the VFO.
> 
> When these radios were built the only stable transmitter was crystal 
> controlled.  Receivers were not very narrow and they drifted also, everyone 
> learned to live with it.
> After a warm up period the Ranger should be "reasonably" stable.  While it 
> is fun to operate on CW, I would not consider it a serious CW radio in 2006.
> 
> Jim
> 
> When I acquired my Ranger I, I assessed the radio mechanically and
> electrically, it appeared to be a kit build and had a number of
> modifications.  It was 50 years old and time for some serious TLC.
> I decided to bring it back to factory new conditions.  Not pristine, but
> working as it should have left the factory with updated power supplies and
> PTT.
> Part of my goal was that I did not want to replace a component a week until
> it worked properly.
> 
> A search of the WEB returned a number of good articles.  I read each one and
> decided which ones to incorporate in the new/old radio.
> The BAMA site has the user manual and construction manual, a must have.
> 
> I took the radio apart and gave it a good cleaning with "Simple Green" and a
> garden hose.
> After a through drying, I replaced all electrolytics, interstage capacitors,
> some bypasses, metering resistors and anything that looked slightly funny. A
> three wire power and fuse installed.
> The power supplies were solid-stated and a PTT circuit added.
> Deoxit and lithium grease were used where appropriate.
> 
> I was rewarded with a radio that played (almost, a few tweaks were needed)
> and has run without incident for 6 months.
> 
> 
> 
> > Greetings to all on the list .
> >
> > I have recently aquired a Ranger 1 which was sold to me as a runner, 
> > however
> > it does have some problems, namely vfo stability (or rather, lack of). 
> > I'm
> > recently licensed and bought this to use exclusively for cw work, mainly 
> > on
> > 40/20 metres.  The vfo seems okay on the 1.75-2.0 mhz, and I hit the marks 
> > on
> > the meter and get about 40-50w into the dummy load, sounds pretty clean, 
> > but
> > on the 7mhz tank it's all over the place, I've never heard anything quite 
> > so
> > bad to be honest, plus on this band 40/20/15 etc, the buffer current drops 
> > by
> > over half and I get sprogs all over the band from v3.   I see it's had the
> > "standard" fire in the vfo box but that's all fixed, just had to sweep 
> > some
> > ash out and replace R3/v2, and I've replaced c12/c13 to no avail ... but 
> > the
> > bit that bothers me is that the LV rectifier tube has been solid stated 
> > and
> > is now giving close to 400 volts, isn't that too high, should I be 
> > thinking
> > of putting a series regulator in there to get it back down to 300v or is 
> > it
> > better to look at obtaining another 6ax5?
> > I wasn't expecting miracles, but am I perhaps expecting too much from it 
> > re
> > h/f cw work? ie, if I do go to the trouble of completely removing the vfo,
> > replacing everything, stabilising the 300v, can I reasonably expect to be
> > able to use it on cw? or should I rather box it up now and pass it on to
> > somebody who's interested in AM, where the frequency instability would
> > probabably not be so readily noticed?
> >
> > Your thoughts and comments would be greatly appreciated.
> >
> > Thanks and 73
> >
> > Adrian ZS1TTZ
> 
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