Hey you radio people, I bet my Johnson is bigger than yours, want to show me your Johnson?

[humanearth]

Here is my big Johnson

It's a Johnson Viking Valiant II

Yes it's an old ham radio, get your mind out of the gutter

[WindAtMyBack]

KenwoodTS-440S

Old HalicraftSX-71

These were my father's. They are mine now, but I don't use them and don't have a license. I have a GROL and that's it. I've never used it either. I started to study for a novice license when I was about 12, but never got it. I learned code and could send about 8-10 WPM and receive about 5-6 WPM. At that time 5 WPM was the requirement for a novice license.

Notice the dust. :)
They haven't been used in a long time.

[humanearth]

I love old radios. That Kenwood in working order is 700-800 dollars. Now that Halicraft I've seen them go for all kinds of prices.

No CW is needed now for your ham license and its only 3 levels now, not 5 like it used to be.

Plus they even dumb down the test so anyone can pass now.

I looked at the newest test and I think its kinda a slap in face to the old timers

But hey, it gets you on the air

[WindAtMyBack]

The Kenwood works. If it's going for 700-800 then it's gone up in price since the last time I checked. That was probably 8-10 years ago.

I don't think the Halicraft works, but I don't know for sure. My dad had the cover off (you can kind of see it in the upper left). It's been a while since I looked, but I vaguely remember that a tube is missing. If he didn't replace it that means it was hard to find.

I have a box of old tubes. I don't know what they're from. They could be from radios, TVs or whatever. When I was young, a lot of stores still had tube testers. When I was a kid I remember pulling all the tubes out of the TV and taking them to the drug store to test them. I managed to fix the TV at least once doing that.

I started building Heathkit stuff when I was about 9-10 years old. I have a big stack of Heathkit manuals also. There's probably at least a couple dozen of them.

[humanearth]

Check the prices on eBay. At least that would give you a rough idea of value

The Heathkit manuals can be valuable

[DubiousIntentions]

Would these tube radios still work with an EMP?

[humanearth]

@DubiousIntentions They sure would

[WindAtMyBack]

@DubiousIntentions
What's an EMP? I know about some things that could stand for, but none make sense in the question.

[DubiousIntentions]

Electro Magnetic Pulse, like from a nuclear explosion in the atmosphere that fries electronics.

[WindAtMyBack]

@dubiousintentions

Good question. I don't know. My guess is that a tube radio will better survive EMP.

The key word in EMP is "Magnetic". When a magnetic field passes through ANY metal conductor, it will cause an electric current to flow. That's basically what an antenna does in a controlled way. However ALL conductors will do that. That includes every electronic device in a radio or any other electronic equipment. So with a very strong EMP, the magnetic field will cause a high enough current to zap resistors, capacitors, processors and everything else.

The thing is about tubes is that they are well known for handling high power. That's why a lot of musicians like old tube amplifiers. They can be over powered and still work. If you over power solid state (digital) stuff like that, it will zap and smoke.

[humanearth]

Kiss the cellphones, modern cars goodbye, Internet, power grid, computers, modern tractors, modern watches, credit cards (yes credit cards, they have microchips in them now) LED light blubs and anything made after 1964

That's why older things are better when it comes to EMP's

[Static_In_The_Attic]

I’m going to start calling you BIG JOHNSON Bro & does BIG JOHNSON’S car look like this?

[humanearth]

Photo not loading

[DubiousIntentions]

Where does the passenger sit? 🤔😂🤣

[Static_In_The_Attic]

@DubiousIntentions I guess you have to sit on my lap.

[humanearth]

Photo finely loaded

No my vehicles are not that bad

[DubiousIntentions]

My Johnson is more imposing than your Johnson.

Johnson Light Machine Gun

[humanearth]

NICE

[Static_In_The_Attic]

I didn’t know you had a Johnson, good for you, hahaha.

[Likes2drive]

I don’t have any tube radios, my Yaesu comes close 😊

[docster]

It must be nice having a Johnson that glows in the dark!

[Anonymous]

I never thought I'd see any posts about ham radio on this site! My radios are solid state but I have not used them in twenty years. I am still licensed though. I used to spend a lot of time on ham radio. I'd like to get back into it some day.

[humanearth]

Go look at my profile, I know most hams on here.

Plus am a avid paper QSL chaser, I send one out with every new contact

[GoodGuyBreakingBad]

My late Mom had a Tube set CB Radio and she gave away to this guy she dated off and on wow it was a big Mrs Johnson then I bought a modern one don't remember what happen to that thing but that is some Johnson you have.

[Anonymous]

Nonsense, you can't make radio's out of ham.

I'm not falling for this again, not after the potato batteries.

[humanearth]

Lmbo

[SnowedIn]

I wish I had a Johnson like yours!

[exitseven]

Awesome old tech.

[douride2]

My that is a big Johnson!

[AFretiredTXn]

I wish I had your Big Johnson.

[LavLavLuv]

It’s so big

[Mayo503]

Keyboard warriors to me plus hackers too

[Anonymous]

Eeeeek.

[humanearth]

Hahaha