[Johnson] Will be restoring a Johnson Ranger
manualman at juno.com
manualman at juno.com
Mon Feb 14 00:00:52 EST 2022
When the Johnson Ranger was first introduced, the 11 meter band was still
an amateur radio band. In 1958, it was allocated for Class D Citizens
Band Service.
The band was useless for any amateur radio since the band had lots of
industrial plasma users and medical diathermy machines all producing tons
of wideband noise across that frequency range.
20 years later the FCC allocated the 12 meter band (part of WARC) to
amateur radio.
Personally, I would not consider modifying the original Ranger to cover 6
meters. Almost every stage, except power supply area and modulator area,
would have to be diddled with.
Pete, wa2cwa
www.manualman.com
On Sun, 13 Feb 2022 21:59:57 -0500 William Cromwell
<wrcromwell at gmail.com> writes:
> Hi,
>
> I will support Scott's comments about the manuals from Pete. I
> bought
> some from him and they are *good*.
>
> Pete also gave more information about the differences between the
> model
> some people call 1 and the later 2. He also directly stated what I
> hinted at. My Ranger is not labeled 1 and is not a 2. Apparently
> there
> is no 1. Eleven meters is not very useful in amateur radio and the
> Ranger would be illegal for use on the citizens band. Maybe I can
> modify
> mine for six meters ala the model 2. Maybe not worth the trouble
> since I
> have easier ways to get there. Maybe some day we will get 11 meters
> back. Probably noy in my lifetime.
>
> 73,
>
> Bill KU8H
>
> bark less - wag more
>
> On 2/13/22 6:56 PM, whitebear1122 at comcast.net wrote:
> > Looks like others have answered your questions but I will add my 2
> cents as
> > well.
> >
> > 1. Ranger has a maroon cabinet with a dark grey front panel upper
> half
> > color and maroon lower half color. Ranger II has a medium to light
> grey
> > cabinet and front panel. Ranger knobs have white pegs on the
> front of the
> > knob for pointers while Ranger II actually has a pointer if I
> recall.
> >
> > 2. As a lister mentioned here, it would be a good to at least get
> an idea
> > of what's wrong prior to recapping.
> >
> > 3. You might consider test the power supply first. Are you power
> supply
> > voltages there?
> >
> > 4. Yeah you need that plug in the connector on the rear. One
> time I
> > grabbed a Ranger II off the shelf after it sat for a while,
> plugged it in,
> > didn't work, and it took a few minutes before I remembered to
> check for the
> > plug. It was gone..
> >
> > 5. A common failure of the Ranger and Ranger II is R13 which is a
> 18K 2
> > watt (I think) resistor in the VFO voltage regulator tube that
> often burns
> > up because it is power underrated.
> >
> > 6. You already know about the old electrolytic caps. My personal
> opinion
> > is that they are either bad or going bad....
> >
> > 7. You need a good manual. I see ManualMan has commented on
> here. His
> > manuals are top notch. I bought a Ranger II manual back then, and
> more
> > recently a Heathkit HW-12 Assembly Manual and they are really well
> made.
> >
> > 8. The variac power up is good. If no fuses blew, I'd go back in
> and check
> > the power supply voltages. Then check the VFO to see if it's
> working. Does
> > the "ZERO" function work? Hopefully you have a tube test and
> have checked
> > all the tubes, especially the VFO 6UA8 (I think) and two voltage
> regulator
> > tubes.
> >
> > 9. I may not be remembering correctly but I don't think there are
> chassis
> > cans in the Ranger. I recapped my Ranger last year with the KE9PQ
> set on
> > eBay and they are all under chassis caps, again if I recall
> correctly.
> >
> > 10. I think there are very few differences between the two, it's
> mainly the
> > cabinet colors, knobs, and meter. The Ranger II uses 7027
> modulator tubes
> > vs the Ranger 6L6. My Ranger now uses 7027's, required some
> rewiring,
> > because the 6L6's were dead and only had a set of 7027's in the
> junk box.
> > About 6 months later I found a set of 6L6's in the junk box.....
> too late,
> > it's got 7027's now.
> >
> > Good luck. 73 Scott WA9WFA
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: johnson-bounces at mailman.qth.net
> <johnson-bounces at mailman.qth.net> On
> > Behalf Of donhellen at roadrunner.com
> > Sent: Sunday, February 13, 2022 11:56 AM
> > To: johnson at mailman.qth.net
> > Subject: [Johnson] Will be restoring a Johnson Ranger
> >
> > First, I don't know how to tell if this is a Ranger 2 or earlier
> version.
> > That might make some difference in where the common failure modes
> can be
> > found, but the caps questions should apply to all older radios, I
> think.
> >
> > What I would like to know is where to begin troubleshooting if
> after I
> > re-cap the electrolytics and wax dipped caps, it still doesn't
> work?
> >
> > I have the plug for the back (somewhere) but if I can't find it, I
> can make
> > a new one out of a tube plug, I believe.
> >
> > I guess I'm just asking where the common failure modes are in
> these
> > transmitters so I can have a place to start.
> >
> > I did power it up with a variac even though I wouldn't do that now
> with what
> > I know, but nothing arced or burned or exploded (that's good).
> >
> > If I want to "refill" the metal cap cans with new caps instead of
> going the
> > Hayseed Hamfest replacement kit route, where is the best place to
> buy the
> > replacement caps (both electrolytic and comparable caps to replace
> the waxed
> > ones) from? What type are the best replacements for the
> paper/waxed caps?
> >
> > Thanks!!!
> >
> >
> >
> > Donald KX8K
> >
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