johnson messenger 223 frequency adjust

JustinDePolis said:

I LOVE the 223's. I have rebuild tons of them and owned over 20 or so. The grid leak mod is good advice, although I didn't use the same value, but the end result is the same. I also would so some mods in the final output section and modulator section as well.

If you need a 32.9 rock, lemme know. I am sure I have a few that are good I can send to ya, free of charge. PM me if interested.

As far as expanding the channels, you can, buy why? It is a pain, there is no way to do it other than a external VFO or changing crystals. Even then, with the above mentioned mods, I would usually just restore them, and most of the older radios I have owned back to factory specs for the purpose of nostalgia and call it a day.

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fancy pants said:

honestly, that site is not very good nor is the communication from them. i placed an order and waited and waited and finally figured they were out of business. i emailed them to cancel it. then i got a reply saying since i needed a quote they would get around to it when they wanted. needless to say i wont order from them nor recommend them to anyone. just my opinion. again just my opinion. no need to tell me im a bad person for not liking their way of doing business. what i did do was pick up a parts 250 that had all good crystals for 10 bucks and used the parts from that radio. worked like a charm. everything is on freq and the radio works great. with the exception of the meter but no one has come up with a fix for that one yet. yes, to answer your question that is the crystal you need

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unit_399 said:

The operating frequencies in the Messenger 223 are generated by mixing the outputs of two crystal oscillators in a 6 x 4 switching arrangement. The crystals control the oscillators and there is no provision for adjusting individual crystals. Chances are there is only one bad crystal. Give me a list of the channels that are off frequency and the actual frequencies you are reading on these channels. I will try to tell you which crystal is bad. Replacement crystals are readily available.

As for the mike plug. Pin 5 on the stock connector is not used, so simply connect pin 1 on the 5-pin to pin 1 on the 4-pin, 2 to 2, 3 to 3, and 4 to 4.

- 399

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VA3ES said:

Good point! Best to use either the original Johnson mike, or any Hi-Z crystal mikes. An unpreamped D-104 will work well. (Small mod: change out the grid-leak resistor of the mic preamp to 5 megohms, and that D-104 will sound wonderful.)

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