[Johnson] Hello to the List.

[Dennis A. Deaton]

Good morning.  I'm new to this list and in the process of restoring two
Johnson transmitters from the '50s.  

 

The first is an Adventurer.  One of its previous owners had installed a UHF
connector on the back panel in the place where the original RCA jack
resided.  I'm sorely temped to strip the chassis down to bare metal and take
it over to a friend's house and use his MIG welder to weld up the additional
holes in the chassis and cabinet that were made to accommodate the new jack.

 

The second is a Challenger.  It's in the worst shape of the two.  After
looking at the components in the unit, I've decided that just about all
resistors and capacitors (not the variables) have to be replaced.  So, I'm
putting it on the shelf for now and tackle it later.

 

I'm going to use a Heathkit VF-1 VFO with these transmitters.  Has anyone
had experience with using a VFO on these units.  I understand that the
key-up voltage on the Adventurer can reach close to 600-Volts.  It then
settles down to around 450-Volts at key-down.  Does this cause the VFO to
chirp a lot?  Should I leave the VFO keyed and just key the transmitter?
Should I use a separate power supply for the VFO?  I'd like to hear any
experience that some of you may have had with these transmitters.

 

73's,

Dennis Deaton, WA6ACC

Redlands, California