Hi everyone,
New to the forum here. I've been wanting to get a Johnson Ranger 1 for some time now and I finally found one.
I went through it and did all the regular things: replaced all the electrolytics, all the wax capacitors, as well as R3 in the VFO with a higher wattage resistor. I also cleaned and lubed the planetary drive and cleaned all switch contacts and potentiometers. After following the tune-up procedure in the manual, I had about 20W output. After replacing the 6146 driver tube, I can get out about 45W on CW. FB.
My Ranger has the add-on keying circuit (
http://bama.edebris.com/download/johnson/ranger/keyer_modification/keyer_modification.pdf) and instead of the voltage dividing circuit, a transformer mounted on the keyer plate is used for the 6AL5 voltage supply. It also has the PTT relay modification. Other than that, it looks pretty stock and is a factory built unit, judging by the riveted tube sockets.
Operating in CW sounds and appears fine except for a slight hum. The strange thing is when I switch to Phone and key the mic, i hear only the CW tone in my receiver! It happens whether I am using the VFO or a crystal. I thought, hmm... maybe the key line is getting grounded when it should be going to the multiplier cathode? When in phone, I can close the key and hear the CW tone transmitted, too... I'm not sure if that is normal. Looking at the schematic, I see that when the operate switch (SW4A) is in phone, the key line and multiplier cathode are supposed to be connected together and grounded. So, it's supposed to be doing that.
Any thoughts as to where I could check to see why the CW tone is getting keyed in phone? I put the operate switch in phone and bypassed the relay for the "SW4A Tab 8" relay side and that connection is definitely causing the CW tone to happen.
Thanks and 73,
Tony W1TTL