Johnson messenger 123a?

[ClaimJumper]

I have a Johnson messenger 123a. I want to test it. How the heck do you hook these things up to 12 volt? I assume the small socket with the tab in it is the positive end. Do I just hook the negative to the chassis on the back of the radio?

 

[brandon7861]

I don't think you want to test it. The RF connector is shot and will present a mismatch even if the coax is attached. Chances are, with that kind of corrosion, you will have a lot of problems to fix. In the slight chance it works, you could do damage finding out.

 

[sunbulls]

You're correct about hooking up the power, but it looks like that radio was under water or experienced extremely high moisture at some point. I would consider it a parts radio only. With my restores perspective, among a few other parts, any crystals that are within tolerance are highly sought after. You could check the receive portion, but as stated, I would not transmit. That’s getting the cart way too far in front of the horse. My first thought would be to donate it to an experienced tech. After he looks at it, ask him how much it would cost to repair.

 

[ClaimJumper]

Well. Here's the story. I bought a bunch of radios and microphones from a local picker. I bought them in order to get a nice d104 and a sidekick 100. That's all I wanted out of the box. I started going through the radios and found approximately four of them that work. The rest I intended to toss in the trash as I don't intend to recap them and they're very old. I guess I could open them up and remove the crystals. At least two or three of them will be Crystal controlled. I'm going to sell the d104 as soon as I can guarantee the mic element is good. There's still a couple of radios that I haven't got to check yet. Also the power supply hasn't been checked. There's a big old Motorola desk mic as well. Haven't looked at that yet either.