Heathkit DX-60 for me

[n8fvj]

I had it with troublesome Johnson Rangers. First Ranger arrived with frozen rotary switch shafts. Next Ranger I bought ran for a few minutes in standby, then started smoking. At least $500 to send the Ranger in for repair. (I am selling it as is for $160 on QTH). I am going to be a Heathkit DX-40 or DX-60 owner. Simple to replace parts. A legal limit amp with the Heathkit will make enough power. Got a clean working DX-40 or DX-60. I will purchase.

[W2NBC]

"Next Ranger I bought ran for a few minutes in standby"..

Just curious...

Interesting, that after all the posts regarding your recommended modifications to the JV Ranger, it seems a bit counter-productive to "give up" on a simple to fix transmitter?

Folks on this forum have brought near dead (smoking or otherwise) transmitters alive and sounding great!

DX-60's are great! But some like to smoke too!!

[n8fvj]

"Next Ranger I bought ran for a few minutes in standby"..

Just curious...

Interesting, that after all the posts regarding your recommended modifications to the JV Ranger, it seems a bit counter-productive to "give up" on a simple to fix transmitter?

Folks on this forum have brought near dead (smoking or otherwise) transmitters alive and sounding great!

DX-60's are great! But some like to smoke too!!

So, you are ok having $800+ into a Johnson Ranger? The Ranger chassis is so full of parts and wiring harnesses it is difficult to work on. The DX-60 is so open work/mods are a breeze. DX-60 chassis pix:

[n8fvj]

There is not an operating DX-60 to be found anywhere. I am seriously thinking about going back to a Military TBX-8, but hard to find. Had two, never fail due to built for life construction. It has enough receiver as it just works well on 75 meters, but needs an AM-COMM DSP speaker to remove band noise. Add a SS amp and plenty of transmit signal is provided.

[n8fvj]

I found an operating Globe Scout 680 for $80. A few marks around some switches at bottom I will black out with a marker. There was a Globe DSB-100 but only used one 6DQ6 final tube on AM. I guess about 10 watts carrier power. And, a Johnson Challenger with two 6DQ5 or perhaps 15-20 watts carrier, but I think only 40 watts peak on AM. The Globe uses Heising modulation and should have about 40 watt carrier with much higher peak output at perhaps 160 watts. W8JI has some mods for the Globe Scout I will apply.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

You need to take a chill pill.
Stuff like this pops up all the time. I think two days ago there was a Heathkit DX-60A sold on Eham.
DX-60B up on Ebay right now.
MOUSE OVER & CLICK: Heathkit DX-60B

[n8fvj]

You need to take a chill pill.
Stuff like this pops up all the time. I think two days ago there was a Heathkit DX-60A sold on Eham.
DX-60B up on Ebay right now.
MOUSE OVER & CLICK: Heathkit DX-60B

The DX-60 on ebay has just a few watts output, I wanted a fully working transmitter. Last DX-60 to sell on eHam was 7-12-2022, not a few days ago Dave. A search will show all eham sales.

You tell me to chill. Ok Pete, no new posts for a month. I though my posts were fun to read, informative and added activity to this site. I perform a search on this site to see if my informative posts were not posted before here. I just added a Scout 65 & 680 mods post in transmitters. Delete it if you want. (And Pete did delete it)

[Tom W2ILA]

At Dayton there was a buy one get one free sale on rangers ($100).  Im not following what constitutes an $800 Ranger.  Are you saying you want to ship it out and have the panel silkscreened, chassis polished and entire set de-kitted and reassembled?
Both Ranger and DX60 are fun but the Ranger is so much more radio. 

[K1JJ]

Ya, know, funny.... I came to the same conclusion about Rangers many years ago too.  The last one I had was in the 90's. It's a cool rig, but for me, was difficult to keep working. I like to modify rigs.  The final straw was when I added solid state rectifiers and the increased modulated HV caused the terminal strips to arc. Getting at wires and certain parts can be a nightmare.  It sometimes takes a calm personality to work on and maintain these rigs.  I am more the type to tear down or throw out problem rigs and start from scratch to build my own.

My recent post choosing to build my own 6146 "Commando" rig rather than to buy a Ranger to modify is a perfect example.  I like a lot of room to work and oversize parts for the best tolerances and safety factors.  I love my Commado and it has never crapped out now that it has been optimized and finished.

Yes, the DX-60  and its family of rigs by Heathkit are easier to work on and maintain than a Ranger.  I almost bought a DX-60 and did the QIX broadcast audio mods but went Commando.  That DX-60 would be a very FB rig once sounding good.

Bottom line is that I can appreciate how difficult it is to maintain some of the older AM rigs. Building our own might seem like a lot of work, but in the long run we get full control of our destiny when doing so.... :-)    Don't let a few crap outs keep you from posting and moving forward in your AM rig education.

** BTW, a possible solution using a DX-60:   Along with the QIX hi-fi screen modulation mod, by adding a $50 Chinese DDS VFO board with digital readout, making it fully self-contained, would make a very nice rig!  Easy to service and maintain.  A small linear could bring it up to 100 W carrier.

T

[Pete, WA2CWA]

You tell me to chill. Ok Pete, no new posts for a month.

Interesting that this is the second time in the last several months I said to you "That sounds like a plan" in response to almost the same statement you made - Two web sites on two different forums.
No need to respond; I don't want you to screw up your plan!

[Tom W2ILA]

Good stuff Tom.  My Ranger was bulletproof and ran for about 20 years but then again it wasnt modified.  But the DX60B had a bunch of crapouts during its career.  Either way both are entertaining. 

[KE5YTV]

I guess I just don"t understand your situation. I have a Johnson Viking 1, Ranger 1, Ranger 11, Courier, and a Thunderbolt. They all needed refurbishing. They are all made with quality components are were fun projects to restore.

[n8fvj]

I guess I just don"t understand your situation. I have a Johnson Viking 1, Ranger 1, Ranger 11, Courier, and a Thunderbolt. They all needed refurbishing. They are all made with quality components are were fun projects to restore.

My eye sight makes troubleshooting too difficult on a complex Ranger. I received two broken Rangers, I went with a Globe Scout 680A. Globe Scout 680 has an open chassis, about any part is easily accessible. I replaced the Globe 680 electrolytic caps. It took longer than normal, but I got thru it. I have no depth perception and only one operating eye making it difficult to locate the solder pencil point plus a bit fuzzy close up vision.

Looking for an operating DX-60 was unfound, thus the title should have read Globe 65 or 680.

[KD1SH]

 I love the DX-60 enough so that, a few months back, I bought a second one as a backup. I haven't done the mods yet, but when I do, I will photo-document the process and post it in Steve's original thread. Steve's instructions are concise and easy enough to follow, but some might like to have pictures. I've got multiple simultaneous projects going on right now, so it'll likely be a while. Sounds like a good winter project.
  Not bragging at all—I don't have a particularly fine radio voice—but several times my humble little DX-60 has been mistaken for an Anan or an E-rig.

[Tom W2ILA]

The most important mod for any DX60 is the PTT mod.  Treat your function switch with the resprct it deserves.

[KD1SH]

  Yes indeed, Heath accomplished their design goals by creating a simple, effective little rig, but switching the B+ through marginal wafer-switch contacts was a disaster. For the purist who might want to retain the original functionality as much as possible, VE6KQ has a nice approach, here:
http://www.ve6kq.com/dx60bfunctionswitch.pdf
  His approach addresses only the B+ switching, not the AC line switching, but the former is probably the worst offender by far, and good-sense maintenance will probably keep the AC switching from being a problem. I've never had a problem with mine.
  Otherwise, most of us would probably prefer an actual microphone PTT, and it's easily done, as described here:
http://www.amwindow.org/tech/htm/dx60ptt.htm

The most important mod for any DX60 is the PTT mod.  Treat your function switch with the resprct it deserves.

[N4DJ]

I built a DX-60 when I was 14 years old. It worked good on CW. Always had low modulation on AM. I fixed that by getting a Ranger II.  I did always worry about the operate switch, so on AM I would put it in Phone mode and use the straight key as a PTT switch thus saving the operate switch as much as I could.
I look at the back of the chassis of every DX-60 I see to see if there is WN4DUS, WA4DUS or something inscribed on it. After 62 years I don't remember exactly what I put on it but I will know it when I see it! I still have my Ranger II in good working order.

73,
N4DJ 
ex WN4DUS  ( dropped the W and the S and erased some of the U to make it a J thus WN4DUS evolved into N4DJ )

[WB6NVH]

I am sure it's rough having to depend on others to repair or restore this old gear, and must be very frustrating. Most of us do our own work and have a sort of dim view of others who just ship stuff to a repair guy, but I can understand why it is often necessary.

Sinking $ 800 into a Ranger is more than I would consider, and probably the rest of us feel the same way. This stuff always seems to need work no matter what the seller says.  So many Rangers have been mutilated with "broadcast sound" attempts, or owned by CB'ers in the 60's who didn't know what they were doing.  Another thing, I have the feeling that even if a Ranger was overhauled by a "professional" tech, it might crap out shortly after you got it back. You never know.  A good power transformer may croak a week or a month later.  A power resistor may decide it's old enough to fail and go open. Lots of stuff I overhaul has smaller annoying issues after an electrical restoration that take a few weeks to work out before things run smoothly.

A TBX... I have one, I think it is a -5.  This encourages me to make an AC power supply and get it on the air.  Seems quite prehistoric today.

Slightly off topic, but what is this "restoration" fascination with polishing and grinding through the cadmium plating on a chassis until it is down to shiny bare steel?  This will flash rust in a hurry in most areas although our intrepid restorer has usually waxed the chassis with car wax to prevent this (temporarily.)  The gear never looked like that when it was new.

[k3msb]

The most important mod for any DX60 is the PTT mod.  Treat your function switch with the resprct it deserves.

I just did the mod for the HV on my DX-60B this weekend;  working great, and didn't take long to do.   For the 100VAC,  I'm just going to let the radio in standby and use the ON/OFF switch on the external power strip.


Next up is the WC3K audio mods.

[DMOD]

The most important mod for any DX60 is the PTT mod.  Treat your function switch with the resprct it deserves.

I just did the mod for the HV on my DX-60B this weekend;  working great, and didn't take long to do.   For the 100VAC,  I'm just going to let the radio in standby and use the ON/OFF switch on the external power strip.


Next up is the WC3K audio mods.

Those mods require a lot of modulator tube current with that 50 ohm cathode resistor which reduces the life of the 6DE7 tube.

Below is the circuit I use.

This includes a peak modulation circuit seen in the lower right of schematic 1

[n8fvj]

BTW- the Scout 680A did not transmit. I tossed in the towel and bought a 100% operating Hallicrafters HT-44 from a Ham. eBay is not a good source for Ham gear.