Viking Adventurer Re-Build

Johnson Viking Adventurer Re-Build
This Johnson Viking Adventurer was given to me by Neil Vince (KA7JAS). He invited me into his "warehouse" where he keeps a lot of old used ham gear. It was sitting next to an old Collins R-388, and the memories just came flooding back. That was my novice rig back in 1959 ... a borrowed R-388 and a used Viking Adventurer. No sooner had I said that out loud, than Neil had it loaded into the back of my pick up truck. He wouldn't take any payment, nor would he take it back. All he asked was that it get used. Below are the results of my efforts on the Viking Adventurer to bring it back to life. It works just fine, and the first contact with it was with a Tennessee station on 40-meters. How sweet it is!

Johnson Viking Adventurer Re-Build

This Johnson Viking Adventurer was given to me by Neil Vince (KA7JAS). He invited me into his "warehouse" where he keeps a lot of old used ham gear. It was sitting next to an old Collins R-388, and the memories just came flooding back. That was my novice rig back in 1959 ... a borrowed R-388 and a used Viking Adventurer. No sooner had I said that out loud, than Neil had it loaded into the back of my pick up truck. He wouldn't take any payment, nor would he take it back. All he asked was that it get used. Below are the results of my efforts on the Viking Adventurer to bring it back to life. It works just fine, and the first contact with it was with a Tennessee station on 40-meters. How sweet it is!

Before	After
( Click on the image of interest to see full size version )

The obvious changes are that the meter was replaced from a 10 VDC face to one with a 250 ma/5 ma face, and was actually a 50-Ohm, 1 ma meter movement out of a junked DX-60. The grid/plate meter slide switch was apparently bad, and so had been replaced by a large, bat-handle switch on the lower right quadrant of the front panel. This I removed and replaced the bad grid/plate meter switch located just below the band switch. The hacked up hole left from the removal of the bat-handle switch was filled with a chrome, radial fingered plug from the local hardware store.

These are the "top-side" views of the transmitter. The obvious differences are the different meter, the old "door knob" capacitor got replaced by one whose type and size is more in keeping with the original design, and the ceramic plate cap on the 807 was changed out as the existing one was cracked.

This is where most of the changes and clean up occured. I removed all of the components, tube sockets, solder terminal strips, switches etc. getting it down to the bare chassis and nothing more. I then rebuilt it according to the manual with some thought to shortening lead lengths based upon good engineering practices. The result is what you see above on the right. The Viking Adventurer is currently paired with a Johnson Model 122 VFO and Hallicrafter's "TO Keyer", and is used with a Collins R-388 receiver. As a dyed-in-the-Wool, "Know" Code ham, it just doesn't get much better than this!

The assembled station consisting of the Drake 2B/2BQ on top, (sitting atop the Collins R-388), the R-388 speaker to the left of the Viking Adventurer and T.O. Keyer, which sits above the Viking Ranger and Viking Model 122 VFO. The Viking Ranger is the next project to get back up on the air, and will be used with the Collins R-388 as an AM station.

The OEM Schematic of the original Viking Adventurer (Click To Download And View / Print Full Size Copy)	The Johnson Viking Adventurer Assembly/User Manual (Click The Front Cover Above To Download Entire Manual In .PDF Format)

Other Links to Viking Adventurer Data and Information
Technical Specifications - (Thanks to WB6FZH) Advertising Flyer