Before I pose my first 2 questions to the group, let me introduce myself: I'm Mike, kd0ar, located in Youngstown, OH. I used to be somewhat active on 75nd 40 a number of years ago, and still operate very sporadically on 75. I am a broadcast engineer by trade, and am currently building a brand new night site on 1390 khz, which is turning out to be a real fun project. My interests are not only in AM, but in VERY early CW rigs, mostly from the 1920's, where I homebrewed a little TPTG rig for 80CW,. I am also contemplating building a class E rig as well (AM PWM on 75). I have designed a little class E PA for a QRP CW rig I use while camping and operates on 30 meters. (>90% efficient on 10 MHz by the way).
So, here's the meat and potatoes of this post: I have recently acquired a Viking one in abysmal cabinet condition. I want to make it look pretty, and as original as possible. I have a couple of questions that perhaps you can help me out with... 1- Does anyone make a fairly closely matched paint that would match the colors of the front panel? My cabinet is crinkle black, and I do know how to create that effect with the oven, etc... but is the front panel gray a special color. Also, is the cabinet supposed to be black? I've seen some Johnsons use a dark maroon color on the cabinet. Which is correct for the Viking 1 ? Second.... some time ago, I had run across a website of a guy who had or made decals of the Johnson logo. Is this fellow still around and producing these ? If so, does anyone have his website handy? The inside of this transmitter, after cleaning is in pretty darn good condition and I think a restored example of this rig would make a fine addition to my rather small collection of AM rigs. My current AM shack consists of a Viking 2, Hallicrafters SX-115 and a National NC300. The audio chain consists of a Gates Yard feeding a Sta-Level followed by the Gates clipper which together really cranks the audio. Not one transistor in the (vintage) AM station here. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated regarding the restoration of this rig. Mike, kd0ar
