Viking II meters

[k7mdo]

Having a reputation for accepting junk radios at no charge, I seem to have now acquired three Viking II's.

One of them only required a minimal effort to put it on the air, my Viking II-CD and I left it totally stock.  Now I have dragged the other two out of their cabinets and into the "restoration" pre-examination room.  Both appear to have been in a dumpster and from the looks they were dropped several feet.  ON one the face has 1/8" dents and is pretty well trashed though it appears electrically to be unmodified and complete.  The other was dropped on its side but is extensively modified throughout.  In both cases the transformer feet are bent up a little and both chassis have a little "wow" in their top surfaces.  I really hate to part them out but it looks like a chassis up restoration would be needed in either case.  One also is marked as "factory wired" as is my "CD" version while the modified one is not. 

A sidelight of the inspection was that the two have quite different meters.  They are both Johnson Viking II meters and at first appear similar.  However, the markings are different and I wonder if anyone else has seen this difference.  I have two meters that have the usual 0-500 milliampere scale but with no numeric indication for the "500". However, one of the meters has the "500" on the scale and it has one other anomoly:  It has a clear "red" line through the scale at 160 milliamperes as though that is an important point for some aspect of operation.

Anyone else have such a meter indicator and/or how it supposed to play into the operation?

[WQ9E]

A sidelight of the inspection was that the two have quite different meters.  They are both Johnson Viking II meters and at first appear similar.  However, the markings are different and I wonder if anyone else has seen this difference.  I have two meters that have the usual 0-500 milliampere scale but with no numeric indication for the "500". However, one of the meters has the "500" on the scale and it has one other anomoly:  It has a clear "red" line through the scale at 160 milliamperes as though that is an important point for some aspect of operation.

The novice ticket was introduced during the time of the Viking II and it required crystal control with a maximum of 75 watts input (calculated as plate input power plus control grid power at that time).  The Viking II circuit reads total cathode current in the plate position so 160 mils total cathode current would provide around 120 mils of plate current, the remainder being the sum of screen and control grid current which should be right at the novice limit given the plate voltage under load.

[k7mdo]

OK, I did wonder about the novice issue but haven't seen it in print... one other thought I have had since posting was that the red mark is very near the 8 milliampere limit for the grid current when the meter is in the grid position. 

Now I have to decide if I want to part out the darn things or not... I am almost too nostalgic to do it.

73, Tom

[k7mdo]

In looking at the dumpster Viking II's I have decided I can restore one of them and use the other as parts.  However, when I look at the removal of the wiring harness it comes to my mind that the job will not be as easy as it seems.

I wonder if anyone has any wiring harnesses available?  It is hard to tell if the wires were installed and then tied into a harness or other way around.  I see it as a "doable" job but not having the kit wiring instructions I will have quite a time duplicating the harness either in place or outside of the set.  I would need either good instructions or would have to make a "harness diagram" and go from there.

Has anyone reading this done a ground up on a Viking II before?

73, Tom

[KM1H]

I could use a non Novice meter or just the glass for my CDC.

Carl

[W3NE]

It is hard to tell if the wires were installed and then tied into a harness or other way around.

My Viking II kit came with a finished laced cable. It would have been unusual for a manufactured or kit Viking II to be assembled without a pre-laced cable, as that was universal practice when Real Radio equipment was made.

To assemble the "wiring harness" a cable board was made, typically on a piece of 3/4" plywood, with nails or special parts as trunk guides and springs to hold wires at breakouts. The cable board was usually constructed using a dis-assembled hand-wired cable removed from the prototype to locate guides for production cables. A wire cutting chart was prepared for pre-cutting and striping numbered wires, and each breakout from the cable was marked (or illustrated) on the board with corresponding wire numbers and color code. The cable was laced with waxed linen "lacing cord" by hand after all the wires were in place. Some production cable boards were works of art, multilevel in some cases, made on varnished maple plywood by skilled technicians (usually hams) who took great pride in the quality of their work.

Bob - NE