[Johnson] Fw: Re: Johnson Valiant Zero Beat Tone

[Whitebear1122]

The Valiant is a fabulous transmitter!  I bought mine in 1994 or 1995 and it was shipped from Canada.  I was in awe when I removed it from the well packed box.  And it was like heaven to fire it up and put it on the air for the first time.  Wonderful nostalgia!!  

One the spot signal, my spot signal strength is way down to the point where it is often difficult to hear.  What I learned was that if I touch the grid knob skirt, the signal amplitude is louder in the receiver.  Don't ask me why, and I never looked into it, just kept touching the knob skirt when I needed to :)  Try it :)

I see you replaced the 866's.  I did that right away and put in 3B28's.   I do have some 866's and I am tempted to put them back in for the fun of it, condition them by turning on the filament and letting them warm up for 12 hours, and then try it out.  There was something especially cool about the nuclear blue glow when keying the Valiant with the 866's.   I got rid of them to protect the power transformer.  

I am embarrassed to say that I haven't replaced the original power cord or two prong fused plug yet.  I will, just haven't gotten around to it in 20 years :)  I do have the transmitter and receiver both tied to dc ground though to eliminate any potential difference between the two radios.  I don't remember  if it was the Valiant/75A2 or Collins 32V2/75A1, but one time I was touching both the transmitter and receiver at the same time and got a jolt.  I measured 70 volts difference.  That's one reason the power cord needs to be changed to a grounded 3 wire.  

When I first got the Valiant I didn't know a thing about repairing tube radios.  About 3 months after owning it, that OA2 bias resistor that is under rated in the VFO burned up and took out the OA2 and 6AU6 VFO.  That's when I sought out a local ham who loaned me his tube tester, and when I reported the results, gave me two new tubes to help get it back up and running.  I moved the new bias resistor out of the VFO compartment and located it under the chassis, and upped the resistor power rating to 5 watts.  No problems since.

Something that I do need to do is recap it.  it's long past time to replace the electrolytics.  I know better but I just haven't gotten to it yet.  

Have fun with your Valiant and your radio repair adventures.

73, Scott WA9WFA