Trivia question

[KM1H]

Johnson designed and built a ham amp that didnt go to market under their name.

What is it?

Carl
KM1H

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Thunderbolt II
I also appeared as a Tempo "something".

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Attached is the 1st page of the Johnson brochure.

[w3jn]

Very cool!  Styled like that little SSB transceiver of which they made a few prototypes.

[W2PFY]

do anybody know what tubes were to be used in it?

[KF1Z]

Looks like that Thunderbolt II  has a Johnson tag on it.....

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Very cool!  Styled like that little SSB transceiver of which they made a few prototypes.

The Avenger

[Pete, WA2CWA]

do anybody know what tubes were to be used in it?

Pair of 3-400Z zero bias triodes

[w3jn]

Dat be d one, Pete.  Saw one in the flesh once... too bad they never took it to market.

[WZ1M]

OK, heres another trivia. What high end Hallicrafters receiver was never in production but was still advertized for sale in Allied Radio catalog.
Gary

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Could be this; the Hallicrafters SX-112:

[ka3zlr]

Pete,..Your Amazing..

73
Jack.

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

I saw one of those at W3HM's place years ago. A very cool looking radio!

Very cool!  Styled like that little SSB transceiver of which they made a few prototypes.

The Avenger

[N3DRB The Derb]

I gotta say: I dont like it.

It's hard to think of their products going the way of plastic, which they would have gone given enough time.

Like a actress who dies too young; you never see what she would have been at age 75. Johnson is like that; frozen in time with no later product line to consider.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Pete,..Your Amazing..

73
Jack.

I know    but neither trivia questioner has returned to say yes, no, dumb choice, etc.

[KM1H]

It came to market as the Henry Tempo 2000; Id never even seen one before.

I had one in here for service with a fried PS and called Henry with a question. The tech said it was bought as a close-out from Johnson in 1971 and no one there had any experience with it. They were all retired or dead is what he said!

Still has the original 3-400Z's. It is also a royal PITA to service as its all put together in layers. Luckily I had a good plate transformer on the shelf (impulse buy at a low price) otherwise the customer would have had to bend over for a Dahl at some outlandish price.

If anybody has one please realize that for 120V operation it has the neutral and ground leads tied together, a big NEC no-no. I dont know if that was a Johnson or Henry gaffe but thats the way it arrived here and shows in the manual.

Carl
KM1H

[WZ1M]

Pete, yes, its the SX-112. I have a 1961 Allied radio catalog with this being for sale.
Regards,
Gary

[ka3zlr]

Pete,..Your Amazing..

73
Jack.

I know    but neither trivia questioner has returned to say yes, no, dumb choice, etc.

Just like Me Pete, they know better than to mess with you...LOL... ...Ah my just teasen...

73
Jack.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

It came to market as the Henry Tempo 2000; Id never even seen one before.

I had one in here for service with a fried PS and called Henry with a question. The tech said it was bought as a close-out from Johnson in 1971 and no one there had any experience with it. They were all retired or dead is what he said!

Still has the original 3-400Z's. It is also a royal PITA to service as its all put together in layers. Luckily I had a good plate transformer on the shelf (impulse buy at a low price) otherwise the customer would have had to bend over for a Dahl at some outlandish price.

If anybody has one please realize that for 120V operation it has the neutral and ground leads tied together, a big NEC no-no. I dont know if that was a Johnson or Henry gaffe but thats the way it arrived here and shows in the manual.

Carl
KM1H

I don't have the Thunderbolt or 6N2 Thunderbolt schematics handy at the moment, but I thought they tied the ground and neutral together for 120 volt operation on those amplifiers.

Besides being called a Tempo 2000, Henry initially had a product brochure that called it the T-2000 and the K-2000. K-2000 might have been for the export market.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Carl and Gary - Thanks for the updates.

Actually, if we all look back over the last 50 to 60 years, we can probably find a number of one-hit wonders that came from manufacturers that targeted the amateur market. Some actually saw the light of day, even if it was brief, whereas others never saw the light.

And, of course, we probably know, as this sign points out:

[WQ9E]

If anybody has one please realize that for 120V operation it has the neutral and ground leads tied together, a big NEC no-no. I dont know if that was a Johnson or Henry gaffe but thats the way it arrived here and shows in the manual.

Carl
KM1H

Carl,

A common bad practice with Johnson.  The Desk KW is also set up with ground/neutral tied together along with most of the other high power Johnson gear running on 240 volts; I guess that was the way things were done in the 50's.  

I am distrustful enough of the vintage gear switches, etc. that I have a separate panel connected through a 60 amp shutoff switch that provides power to my radio gear and when I am not using it the switch is off.   There is a lot of potential for trouble with these rigs including aged switches, bypass caps on the line side of the fuse, etc.

Rodger WQ9E

[KM1H]

Another one using that wiring was the Alpha 77 Roger, thats how they ran the blower....right from one side to ground!

Ive done the same thing in the 60's and didnt realize the risk potential until I was brought up to speed by one of the engineers at National. There wasnt even a building code in the small NH town I lived in then.

Carl

[WQ9E]

Carl,

I built my HB amp with a 4 contact plug to avoid having to do the same thing with my blower.  I have a feeling few radio rooms would pass a close inspection from an NEC inspector.

But the worst mess I have ever seen was a nice older home my sister-in-law used to own.  I was tracing an outlet problem for her in the basement finished by the previous owner and found the outlet had about 6 feet of proper 12-2 w/ground attached and then it transitioned to three different sections of lamp cord using duct tape around the twisted (no wire nuts) splices for the remaining 20 feet back to the breaker panel.  About a year later she called after one of her visiting college friends (who was a bit "light in the loafers") kept shocking himself by touching the metal light switch plate while standing on the concrete floor.  He was only too happy to demonstrate when I got there; apparently some types really do find electrical shocks enjoyable....

Rodger WQ9E

[The Slab Bacon]

Could be this; the Hallicrafters SX-112:

Pete,
        Are you sure they were never produced?? I remember seeing what I thought was 2 of them at the Howard County fester in West Friendship a few years ago. this tailgater had 2 of them, unfortunately they were both in really bad shape. both had been badly cat-pissed with very rusty chassis's. And both of them had cracked or broken dial glasses. If one of them would have had a good dial glass I would have probably took the gamble to buy both of them in hopes of making 1 good one. I thought they were pretty cool looking radios.

they didnt make that many models of the "big box" radios with slide rule dials. IIRC it was only the SX62 and the 101 series. the 2 that I saw at the fester looked just like the one in this picture. Now it kinda makes me wish I had bought one or both just for a conversation piece!!

                                                                The Slab Bacon

[ka3zlr]

That Thing is Big,...counter top would have to be 3 feet deep..LOL..

73
Jack.