My new transmitter.

[ke7trp]

New in the box, Never used. RF, deck, Power supply, tubes, cables, manual and even the KEY to turn it on. Cant wait to set it up and try it out. I will probably set it up with my Restored HRO60 side by side and use it on 10, 15 and 20 meter AM through the mosely beam. Lucky find.  Will probably never sell it.

Any one ever owned one?  Going to leave her stock for now.  Bring up slow.  Maybe recap if needed.  Dont care to hack it up.  I got other rigs for that.  This one will be covered up with a sheet every day.

C

[KX5JT]

How the heck did you find THAT Clark?  How much?  You must have paid an arm and a leg!! SO COOL!

[KE5YTV]

Just seeing the boxes is XXX radio porn. 

Mike

[kb3ouk]

I think that has to be the find of the year. I know the Tron has/had 2 of them, one was renamed the Viking 400 and the other was the Viking 600, can't remember what exactly he did to the pair of them, but if I remember, the way the 400 was rebuilt made it less powerful than stock, and the 600 was more powerful than stock.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Once upon a time, back in the 90's, I saw two of them all in pieces sitting on a cellar floor of a CB'er. He was selling off the parts, piece by piece.

[W3GMS]

Clark,
The Johnson 500 is a great rig.  You will definitely enjoy it.  

I have had mine for about 15 years now and although not currently on the air it could be in an instant.  Mine was not new in the box, but is in excellent condition.  

The Tron's is known as the "Johnston 600". 

Joe, GMS

[ke7trp]

Thanks guys.  I see they only made 800 of them.  I wonder how many are left?  I have listened to Tims 600 for the last 5 years on various bands.

I have been selling off or trying to sell off alot of my gear.  I realized that peak enjoyment for me is an old 50's Ham receiver/transmitter and a D104.  I decided to look for a J500 and a a Desk KW.  I will keep the GK500 and the GC300.  But the rest are going to be sold off.  Just 4 or 5 radios I really want. No other crap around here.

I was very lucky to have found this 500.  It really is new. I dont even see dust on the chassis. I will keep it and use it until I am gone.  I Just hope she fires up and comes to life with minimal effort. 

I think it will. The shipping bill says it was sold to a distributor in Sioux city IO.  Then to AZ.  So its been sitting here in AZ in the boxes for 55 years or so.  No water, NO rust or corrosion.

C

[ke7trp]

I opened the RF deck and looked inside.  Its brand new.  Here are some teaser pics.  Its like Xmas morning!!! 

[W2NBC]

Clark,

I searched for a long time for a clean 500.. Finally found an almost mint example.. BUT..

That is an amazing time capsule! Congrats!!

This one is serial #41559 , so in the last quarter of production..
500 operating position:
http://qrz.com/db/W2NBC

Make sure you check the value of the meter shunt resistors before you load up!

Good luck,
Jeff

[kb3ouk]

Clark,
The Johnson 500 is a great rig.  You will definitely enjoy it.  

I have had mine for about 15 years now and although not currently on the air it could be in an instant.  Mine was not new in the box, but is in excellent condition.  

The Tron's is known as the "Johnston 600". 

Joe, GMS

The Johnson 400 must be the one he said he sold.

[ke7trp]

Serial 42117.  What does that tell u?

Clark,

I searched for a long time for a clean 500.. Finally found an almost mint example.. BUT..

That is an amazing time capsule! Congrats!!

This one is serial #41559 , so in the last quarter of production..
500 operating position:
http://qrz.com/db/W2NBC

Make sure you check the value of the meter shunt resistors before you load up!

Good luck,
Jeff

[KX5JT]

Tron's Johnson 600 has a pair of 811a's for the modulator as I recall.

Yes sitting boxed in the arid climate of AriDZone-ah.... perfect!

[W8ACR]

No way would I want that piece of hazardous waste. Too heavy. Butt ugly. Poor ergonomic design - was known to cause carpal tunnel syndrome and tennis elbow just because of knob design. Paint chipped and scratched too easily. Ever try to find those long machine screw thingys that hold the cabinet together? 4-250's too expensive. Dial lamps burned out too frequently. VFO unstable. Horrible audio, sounds like a 1920's recording. Inadequate shielding........caused more TVI than all other commercial rigs put together, not to mention low sperm counts in ham operators and their neighbors. Fire hazard. Known to cause gravitational vortices and shifting of magnetic poles. Cited as one of the main causes of global warming and ozone layer thinning which started in the 1960's.

No sour grapes here

Enjoy your good fortune Clark. Hope to hear it booming up to ND someday.

Ron

[The Slab Bacon]

Hmmmm.............. 2 arms, one leg, the left one and yer first and second born, that should just about cover the cost. (or did I forget something)

Ah, yes................now you have a BIG Johnson............    

You should have a lot of fun with it!! Way kool find to find one N.I.B.!

[W2JRO]

This HAS to be THE find of the year!
Congrats and enjoy!

[K6JEK]

You're killing us.  Perhaps you could take a lot of photos so the rest of us can live vicariously.

[ke7trp]

On the 500, I guess its probably best that each piece be unboxed, Layed over a blanket, taken apart and recapped?  I would hate to have a 60 year old cap take out a transformer.  What would you do?

Oh and the serial is 42119.    I thought it was a 7 but its really a 9 at the end.
According to the manual the 500's came with PL175s or 4-400s. 

Sure.  I will take some video and pictures guys.  I have not had the energy or time to do much. Dad is sick in the hospital with heart trouble. They are supposed to do a bypass in the next few days and I have to travel to texas to see him. I am waiting for the call to pack my bags.  I am getting all my work done and making plans for someone to watch Toby the dog ect.  No time for radio. 

Its not like I can use the radio now anyways.  We are smack dab in the middle of monsoon season here in AZ and there are storms every day/night.  As I type this at 8am, I hear distant thunder.

[K6JEK]

I hope your Dad's surgery is uneventful and successful.

[KM1H]

Super find Clark.

Question for J500 owners....how stable is the VFO on the higher bands?

Carl

[W1ATR]

Super find Clark.

Question for J500 owners....how stable is the VFO on the higher bands?

Carl

I use mine almost daily on 10 in the morning with a couple of local guys. She's been a daily driver for a very long time. For the first half hour, I have to bump the vfo on just about every transmission. Not really a big deal to do as I mostly use the front transmit switch to key it up anyway. Basically, I'll bump the switch up one click to "zero" while turning on my 390a's bfo with the other hand. A quick bump on the 500s' vfo, then push the transmit switch up the rest of the way to start the transmission. It all takes less than 2 seconds, and your good to go. After about a half hour, she'll be warmed all the way up and I maybe have to touch it every 20-30 minutes after that. I know my 390a is right on the money, so I don't bother to keep a frequency counter or anything going. It's much faster to zero it against a good rx beat.

Some other notes in case anyone cares. I find the best spot to run the 500 is around 175-250w carrier and let the monkey swing. (and swing it does.) 1100w pep ain't hard to make with crystal clear and loud audio. Just personal preference, but it's 60 years old, and taking it easy on the old beast is beneficial. She'll roll on with 325+w of carrier, but that's a bit rough on such an old box. I only run it wired for 220 with a bucking transformer because the line coming in will run around 245v or so. Out of all of Junkstons' offerings, and I've had them ALL, the 500 is by far the quickest and easiest tx'er to tune up and operate. The damn thing almost tunes itself.

That's a helluva score Clark. Nice job. Flip over the power supply and get rid of the cardboard electrolytics first thing before applying power. I used an outboard oil cap, but my psu is nowhere near new like your's is. On the bottom of the rf deck, you'll find a fairly large green 'tapped' wirewound resistor. The metal clamp fatigues and loosens up over time. It caused an intermittent static problem that was a real pain till I finally found it. Make sure the screw is tight. I would only run it wired for 220. I ran mine on 110 at first, and regulation was a mess. She's much happier on 220. Keep in mind that the 500 uses Johnson's favorite Rube Goldberg "cords and strings" design to move switches and caps. I make a habit of lubing control shafts once a year or so to keep the controls smooth and effortless. I've had the cords break in the past and they can be a pita to get them right again.

73  

[K6JEK]

On the 500, I guess its probably best that each piece be unboxed, Layed over a blanket, taken apart and recapped?  I would hate to have a 60 year old cap take out a transformer.  What would you do?
...

Clark, You'll may get as many answers as there are members of the forum. More, in fact, because some people like me will give you two.

The value of the transmitter is highest as is, never been plugged in. Some collectors go nuts for things like that. Doing nothing, never using it, is one answer. That's not my answer, though.  I would want to use it  but keep it as  original as possible. I'm of the re-forming electrolytics doesn't really work school even though I've sometimes done it. So I'd re-place them before I poweredg anything.  I have never re-stuffed caps but for that piece I would. Then I would do the usual cautious bring up, rectifiers out, see how things look. Rectifiers in slow bring up on a variac. Does this power supply have mercury vapor rectifiers? If so, it's an even more cautious dance involving no B+ and a burn in. Others know more about that than I do. Let's see what they say.

[W1ATR]

Yeah that's a good point and I forgot all about the damn 866's. I wouldn't use them at all. Iron is too hard to come by these days. I run a pair of diodes in the sockets, but a pair of 3b28 xenon gas rectifiers would be great also. It's a huge risk with the 866's.

[ke7trp]

The tubes are all original Johnson tubes including the 866s.  They dont even have dust on them and have not seen the light of day since it was made.

Any luck in decoding the serial number Jeff?  I dont know how to read it.

I am kind of on the cross roads with this thing.  Everyone is telling me to never open it and never use it. Its a "collectors" item. So that means, Its useless? It sits in a box?

I can open it now, Bring it up slow and hope for the best, Probably foolish.  I think the PS caps should be replaced at minimim.  If I replace the caps, Then the thing is no longer new and its no longer factory correct.

I can open it and try to slip new caps into the old caps cardboard. Then it looks like new and factory correct, but its still not new. 

Lastly, I can just open the damn thing, Recap it, Get it on the air and enjoy it the rest of my days. 

I really dont know..  Maybe I should just trade/sell it to some millionaire for a 7800 or 9000D.  I would probably use that rig every day for the next 10 years, I know I use my 756 pro almost every day of my life.

Why do I feel guilty opening this damn radio up and using it?

C

[W8ACR]

Don't even consider not using that beauty on the air. You are not a financial institution, you are an amateur radio operator. It is not a financial investment, it's a work of radio art that will grace your shack and make it a special place like no other on earth. You have been shown favor by unseen forces. Don't squander your good fortune for a few dollars. One humble opinion.

Ron

[W2NBC]

The gentleman I bought mine from said that the last three digits indicate the serial number and the first the production lot run.. (41,42).. So I researched and of course found nothing.. What is relevant is the date of your shipping invoice.. and there could be a date code on those original caps..

Here's my take on keeping it hermetically sealed.. Yours would always be the "newest" 500 ever on the air.. PERIOD.. It would be a legend with most hams, could make for a really cool article in one of the rags, a YOUTUBE sensation, and you would get really BORED with any shiny new big Icom or Yaesu.. (trust me).. But most importantly you would always kick yourself, real hard..

Keep the original caps, keep all the original everything you replace.. And get on the air with the newest old 500!!
J