Johnson CB rigs

[John K5PRO]

At the Black Hole junkyard yesterday I saw some old CB radios FS. Johnson Messinger 123A, solid state mobile, and a Messinger2, with tubes. Are these worth anything for conversion to 10 meters? There was a Midland and Lafayette as well. These were all 23 channel radios, with both channel selector switches and variable tuning.

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

If it's in reasonable/complete shape, the Messenger II is worth grabbing, John. Someone was just asking about one of these in the tech forum recently. There's a lot of info on the 'net for converting your Johnson to 10 meters, too.

Can't remember for sure, but it might only be a 10-12 channel transmitter. The Messenger I was 4 or 5.

[John K5PRO]

I got the Black-Faced Johnson today. Its kind of classy having the same screen mesh cover and paint job that the big Johnsons had. And hollow state inside as well. I read the reports from others converting them to 10 meters and improving the audio greatly. Not sure what i will do with it, but the price was right.

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Johnson didn't differentiate by service from all I've seen, John. At least, not until the 70s-80s when they eventually went more with imported stuff for 11. The II is a nice piece of gear, albeit limited by frequency coverage. Ten will be back, someday....