OT: Johnson Navigator

[David, K3TUE]

I know it's a CW-only transmitter, but does anyone know how difficult one of these is to find?  And if they are worth finding?

[Ed W1XAW]

I know it's a CW-only transmitter, but does anyone know how difficult one of these is to find?  And if they are worth finding?

I had one of these but I never used it.  A guy paid me $90 for it no questions asked.  It looked like a pretty straight forward rig.  If you are only using it for CW a dx 60 works great and they are easy to find. The DX60 has some nice mods that make it a high fi rig but I didn't change mine because I used it primarily on 80 CW. 

73 de W1XAW

[W1UJR]

I know it's a CW-only transmitter, but does anyone know how difficult one of these is to find?  And if they are worth finding?

Hi David,

They are around and not too hard to find, try the online market place which starts with an "e".
As Ed mentioned, expect to pay $100-150 for a nice example.
Nothing special about it that I am aware of, and I have a great deal of older Johnson gear but not a Navigator.

As to being "worth finding", perhaps, depends what you want to do with it.
The nice thing about a Navigator as opposed to Johnson's other basic rig, the Adventurer, is that the Navigator has a built in VFO.
So, if you like to QSY and not be rock bound, it’s a fun rig for that.
Most of the other low power rigs, DX-60, Knight T series, have no VFO.

I would pick one up if it was in really clean shape, they do look somewhat buzzardly.
Prob. uses the same VFO as the Ranger and Valiant.

If you don't mind being rockbound, and for me half the fun is being very minimalist with the low power rigs, take a look at the Johnson Adventurer, it just looks like a FB JN rig.
Oh, and if you get really bored, you can hunt down one of the outboard modulators Johnson made for the Adventurer and get on Fone.

73 ES BTU W1UJR

Johnson Adventurer



Johnson Navigator
http://www.io.com/~nielw/jon_list/navig.jpg

[w8rca]

I'll take as many as you can find for a $100 a piece....the last one in good shape around here I saw at a hamfest went for $300 and could have sold 10 times that day....they are rare and they are not cheap, at least in Michigan.

[Steve W8TOW]

Yup, over here in Michigan, like gasoline, Navigators arn't cheap!
I think for the money, just get a Ranger....unless ya just gotta have
one for the collection...
73 steve

[KA7WOC]

A Navigator sold on e-pay yesterday for around $900   Way too much to pay..but then only about 850 were produced.  Wonder how may made it west of the Rockies?  I've got two 

[Ed W1XAW]

I know it's a CW-only transmitter, but does anyone know how difficult one of these is to find?  And if they are worth finding?

I had one of these but I never used it.  A guy paid me $90 for it no questions asked.  It looked like a pretty straight forward rig.  If you are only using it for CW a dx 60 works great and they are easy to find. The DX60 has some nice mods that make it a high fi rig but I didn't change mine because I used it primarily on 80 CW. 

73 de W1XAW

I'm all wet,  I had and sold the Adventurer, not the Navigator.  Ed

[K5MO]

I know it's a CW-only transmitter, but does anyone know how difficult one of these is to find?  And if they are worth finding?

They're not easy to find...it's an odd rig, hard to picture what EFJ had in mind for it.

It's one of the only Johnson rigs I've run across without the OA2 regulator in the VFO...why? Who knows?!

OTOH, it's hopefully just the thing to drive the little 2x811 EFJ amp with.

Anyone have a scan of the original meter scale? Mine too has a bad Elenco meter, replaced by something else...

John K5MO

[Ed W1XAW]

I know it's a CW-only transmitter, but does anyone know how difficult one of these is to find?  And if they are worth finding?

OTOH, it's hopefully just the thing to drive the little 2x811 EFJ amp with.



John K5MO

I use a Ranger to drive a EFJ Courier Amp for CW, pretty nice arrangement, 300W or so.  I tried it on AM and it worked ok but was hardly worth the effort because I think the power out was about 70 or 80 versus around 45 or 50 for the Ranger. 73 de Ed