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Post by ak3383 on Sept 10, 2009 13:24:19 GMT -5
I have an old Johnson 223 tube radio that I bought about 15-years ago and what I can't figure out is the front speaker grill is a different color than all the other same type 223's I have seen. The ones I have seen do have the same case color as mine - kind of a dull light green - but all of them I have ever saw pictures of have a (black) speaker grill.
On my 223 the speaker grill is the same color - dull green - as the case.
The grill has not been repainted as I have peaked behind the original speaker and it's the same color with no signs of painting. The radio was all stock when I got it, it had the original tubes installed and worked well as it still does today. Is the one I have just an oddity???
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Post by RF289 Avenger on Nov 17, 2009 11:04:40 GMT -5
That is a strange coloration. I have three of the 223's, two are sitting awaiting restoration, and one is in great operating condition. All three have the black speaker grill on them. I have noticed that the 223 did have various model versions. Some had the meter adjustment hole below the meter. Some had a transmit light. All three of mine do not have those features. I still get good comments on the great modulation and sound of the 223. Now if you find a source for the rubber feet to replace the missing one on the bottom of the case, be sure to post it. Later....
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Post by crazybob on Nov 17, 2009 13:19:37 GMT -5
How 'bout this variation from Sears.  |
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Post by cbrown on Nov 17, 2009 13:37:46 GMT -5
I've only seen them black, too. It's possible that it was repainted at some time.
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Post by crazybob on Nov 17, 2009 13:43:47 GMT -5
I looked though my pics, & i came to realize that some 223's had a mod. light, ..cool, I just learned something new!   I have a couple of these radios lying around. I'd like to fix one up to use everyday instead of the SBE Trinidad, because it's an American made tube set, & says Johnson on it! Can you get monster audio & decent receive with the Johnson 223? |
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Post by RF289 Avenger on Nov 17, 2009 14:24:16 GMT -5
They can sound awesome when tuned right. You can also put a switch in the final tubes grid bias that will short the stone fused resistor and it will jump the output up to around 25 watts. Only problem is that it will shorten the life of the tube and it can become "microphonic" too. Stock though they sound great anyway. They were among the first to use frequency synthesis for the channels, and only used 11 crystals to do it instead of 23 or more typical at the time. So it was actually one of the earlier tube/transistor hybrid radios. As a point of interest, Sam's Photofact covered the 223 in their manual #CB-23. Also has a number of other radios in it as well, so look it up....
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Post by crazybob on Nov 17, 2009 14:40:25 GMT -5
Thanks! I just pulled the 'ol Johnson out of the garage & also a parts radio. Both 223's. Found one old Johnson (Turner) stock desk mic. Both radios have no mod. light.
One has an AC hum in the rec. They say the other one sound good but the rec. is a little low, & the S meter doesn't work. It does have 26.915-9.55, where 1-4 channels are supposed to be. That's a good thing! ..Time to get out the golden butter-knife, & may swap some tubes. ..I wish this thing had a 4-pin Cobra mic. plug! ..I think that I have Sam's # 23 around here!
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Post by wd8nia on Nov 17, 2009 15:17:05 GMT -5
They were a fine rig back in the day. Problem now mostly centers on bad crystals. I accumulated several Messenger Two Twenty-Threes over the years and finally quit when I latched onto an F-Model, the last produced. A few years back I restored it.    Guess what? After all that time and effort....bad crystal. I located a modified channel selector/switch assembly that added 8 more channels in the channel 24-40 range, got the F-Model broken down for the conversion, then tired of it and threw everything in boxes for retirement. I had fun though, running it with 4 dead channels before storing it. I found that strapping the output resistor resulted in fuzzy TX audio and scrubbed that. Instead, I just left the Kris solid state regulator in it instead of installing a stock 12BW4 tube. The Kris replacement upped PEP output to around 16 Watts instead of around 8 Watts stock. I found that the stock Johnson unamped desk mic gave the 223 the mellowest TX audio, although its limit was about 80% modulation. Back in the day, I ran a stock 223 into a homebrew "cakepan" 100+ Watt amp and a Mighty Mag at 100' elevation. Sounded like a big radio to the locals....I still miss that old setup and will recreate it someday. 73 |
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Post by crazybob on Nov 17, 2009 17:27:23 GMT -5
Wow! That's 223 is beautiful. You did nice job with it. I'm believer of no jacking up wattage on radios. I just need enough power to excite an amp. I've found that trying to get squeeze 8-9 watts out of the radio , usually sacrafices modulation.
I noticed that one of my 223's has the 12BW4 tube in V-10. The other radio has a black, rubbery round thing that plugs into the tube socket. Is that the Kris thing that I used to see in the Echo CB catalogs?
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Post by wd8nia on Nov 17, 2009 20:07:34 GMT -5
Wow! That's 223 is beautiful. You did nice job with it. I'm believer of no jacking up wattage on radios. I just need enough power to excite an amp. I've found that trying to get squeeze 8-9 watts out of the radio , usually sacrafices modulation. I noticed that one of my 223's has the 12BW4 tube in V-10. The other radio has a black, rubbery round thing that plugs into the tube socket. Is that the Kris thing that I used to see in the Echo CB catalogs? Thanks....lots of careful hours....you really have to be real careful with the traces on the synthesizer board....from experience, they pull loose very easily. I discovered back in 1973 that they can be peaked to swing about 12W, and reconfirmed that with the three I most recently picked up. With a good, low-drive, solid state amp you only realize 60%-75% potential output with a 223, but it's quality TX. The 223 has a nice mellow sound in other people's receivers....it won't slam a speaker like a Tram, but it sounds nicer than a lot of high dollar, high power CB/Exports. It's a good nostalgia rig....shame it's so relatively complicated to internally add channels to. Regulator replacement you have could possibly be a Kris, but all I've ever seen were orange and blue. 2600 is most likely more familiar with them as if there's anything he hasn't done with electronics, he's surely seen it many more times than one. The Messenger Two-Fifty that replaced the 223 was a real letdown. Makes me sad that it's so hard to find a good working 223 any more. It took me buying 5 of them to end up with one that just had one bad crystal to deal with. |
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Post by cbrown on Nov 18, 2009 13:19:20 GMT -5
You can also put a switch in the final tubes grid bias that will short the stone fused resistor and it will jump the output up to around 25 watts. Only problem is that it will shorten the life of the tube I'm a big advocate of "if you want more watts, get an amp" group. No need to push your radio to the point where you're failing components to get wattage that no one on the receiving end is ever going to notice. |
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Post by cbrown on Nov 18, 2009 13:20:56 GMT -5
They were a fine rig back in the day. Problem now mostly centers on bad crystals. I accumulated several Messenger Two Twenty-Threes over the years and finally quit when I latched onto an F-Model, the last produced. A few years back I restored it. Whoa, nice job on the restoration! You did a hell of a job! |
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Post by missourimustang on May 24, 2010 17:14:00 GMT -5
Wow, good job, it looks like it just came out of the box.I have some of those replacements for the 12BW4 tube . Mine are orange and black.There might be 1 red one. No name on them.I think the early models has the meter adj hole and the modulation light.there are 223H models, I recently got a 223F , and now Im working on a 223A.My 223F has a solid back,first one I ever seen.Its a shame that Johnson never had a SSB base.A radio dealer once said the Messenger 124 replaced the 223,I dont know.Its better looking than that 250 at any rate.Oh well, I prefer the 223 over all of them.
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Post by Tombstone (R.I.P.) on May 29, 2010 12:33:06 GMT -5
That's a beautiful Messenger and very nice restoration. I always liked the looks of those. As posted earlier they'll really bark too. As I remember them, they were a little loose on the adjacent channel rejection. How did you get the chassis deck so new looking? I saw an article on a Hallicrafters shortwave rig restore with pictures and the chassis was new looking. The guy that restored it said that he used naval jelly on it??
Tombstone
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Post by missourimustang on May 30, 2010 16:40:01 GMT -5
![]() [/img]I have 3 of them.All 3 have the black speaker grille, 2 have the modulation light and hole for meter adjustment.How many have you seen with the solid back without holes ? Attachments:
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Post by Marc on Jun 1, 2010 11:42:05 GMT -5
Does this radio need the mic connected for the receive to work?
Have one that has no sound on receive but don't have a mic to connect.
Marc
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Post by ic751a on Nov 29, 2010 17:20:34 GMT -5
Beautiful restoration! My 1st was an 'F' model and was the only one I ever saw which would swing from 1.5w to 12w RMS! My Elmer came up with a mod to double the modulator tube and I successfully did it back in '76 and still have the rig here! I also added a fan and several strapping mods to get more current where it needed to be. My driver & final tubes (7061 / 7054) seemed to last at least 2-3 years with 12w swinging to 24w. Nothing like that rich tube sound, not even the newer iCOMs are able to get it right, though they are getting close. I'd LOVE to have an old Sears Citizen in nice condition! I've never seen one before. They were a fine rig back in the day. Problem now mostly centers on bad crystals. I accumulated several Messenger Two Twenty-Threes over the years and finally quit when I latched onto an F-Model, the last produced. A few years back I restored it. Guess what? After all that time and effort....bad crystal. I located a modified channel selector/switch assembly that added 8 more channels in the channel 24-40 range, got the F-Model broken down for the conversion, then tired of it and threw everything in boxes for retirement. I had fun though, running it with 4 dead channels before storing it. I found that strapping the output resistor resulted in fuzzy TX audio and scrubbed that. Instead, I just left the Kris solid state regulator in it instead of installing a stock 12BW4 tube. The Kris replacement upped PEP output to around 16 Watts instead of around 8 Watts stock. I found that the stock Johnson unamped desk mic gave the 223 the mellowest TX audio, although its limit was about 80% modulation. Back in the day, I ran a stock 223 into a homebrew "cakepan" 100+ Watt amp and a Mighty Mag at 100' elevation. Sounded like a big radio to the locals....I still miss that old setup and will recreate it someday. 73 |
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Post by wd8nia on Nov 30, 2010 21:11:19 GMT -5
Update: A few weeks back, I got all the parts together (see pic below) and boxed the whole shebang up for shipping to Alan as the project is way too deep for my skill level. Now, I have to locate the service manual....can't recall where I stashed it but am packing for the 12/14 relocation to FL and should run across it soon. Also collected a bunch of simple tube amp schematics and will try my hand at a small cakepan modulator or two, three, etc.  Should have the new shack set up and on the air by Christmas (I hope). Going with all retro-rigs for CB and anticipation level is so high right now it's got me plumb stressed. |
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