EF Johnson Being Acquired... By JVC Kenwood

[W3WN]

EF Johnson Technologies, a one time manufacturer in the Amateur Radio industry, announced last Friday that they are being acquired by JVC Kenwood

Announcement at http://www.efjohnson.com/news_room/viewer?article_id=80633

Side note: Now maybe I missed it, or maybe my memory is playing tricks on me, but I don't recall hearing that JVC and Kenwood merged back in October 2011.

Which means that the new corporate entity will contain parts of two old US communications companies... EF Johnson, and the former RCA subsidiary, Victor Company of Japan (JVC)

[VE7DCW]

EF Johnson Technologies, a one time manufacturer in the Amateur Radio industry, announced last Friday that they are being acquired by JVC Kenwood

Announcement at http://www.efjohnson.com/news_room/viewer?article_id=80633

Side note: Now maybe I missed it, or maybe my memory is playing tricks on me, but I don't recall hearing that JVC and Kenwood merged back in October 2011.

Which means that the new corporate entity will contain parts of two old US communications companies... EF Johnson, and the former RCA subsidiary, Victor Company of Japan (JVC)

Yup .......Ron you are correct.It's all in the damn initials..... JVC= Japan Victor Company..... NEC= Nippon Electric Company...... COSCO= China Overseas Shipping Company......... and dozens and dozens of others.I see a college course in recognizing corporate initials in the future! :mrgreen:

[K7SGJ]

It probably makes sense, since EFJ hasn't produced anything in the US in a long time. At least, nothing that I'm aware of. In the CB craze daze, their radios were one of the most reliable rigs made. The 123, 323, and similar series were a pleasure, although a rarity, to work on. They could always make specifications, and had some of the cleanest outputs and best audio for a 27 MHz rig.

[kb2vxa]

Their ham transmitters with the exception of the Viking 1 & 2 left something to be desired, power supplies and modulation transformers, they skimped on both. The worst was the desk kilowatt driven by the preferred Ranger, second choice the Valiant. At half power it sounded fine but at full AM output the power supply flagged and it sounded like mud. Now it's commercial two way FM gear, not all that popular.

They made some really good CBs and they were prized highly, but the ham transmitters with 11M on them were much better. Happiness is a big Johnson.

Victor goes WAY back to the early disc player copies of the Berliner Gramophone, Victrola. Then RCA bought them, added electricity and it became RCA Victor, later it went overseas and became JVC which expanded the line making all sorts of home entertainment equipment. I don't know why they call it entertainment, I call it boredom relief, home entertainment is in the bedroom where no electronics belong.

[W3WN]

It probably makes sense, since EFJ hasn't produced anything in the US in a long time. At least, nothing that I'm aware of. In the CB craze daze, their radios were one of the most reliable rigs made. The 123, 323, and similar series were a pleasure, although a rarity, to work on. They could always make specifications, and had some of the cleanest outputs and best audio for a 27 MHz rig.I'll have to take your word for it. I was never interested in CB.

[W3WN]

< snip >
Victor goes WAY back to the early disc player copies of the Berliner Gramophone, Victrola. Then RCA bought them, added electricity and it became RCA Victor, later it went overseas and became JVC which expanded the line making all sorts of home entertainment equipment. I don't know why they call it entertainment, I call it boredom relief, home entertainment is in the bedroom where no electronics belong.Ummm, well, that's not quite the history that I've heard... for example, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RCA_Victor
In 1929, Radio Corporation of America (RCA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RCA)) purchased the Victor Talking Machine Company (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Talking_Machine_Company), then the world's largest manufacturer of phonographs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonograph) (including the famous "Victrola (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victrola)") and phonograph records (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonograph_record) (in British English (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_English), "gramophone records"). The company then became RCA-Victor. With Victor, RCA acquired New World (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_World) rights to the famous Nipper (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nipper) trademark (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark).
During World War II, ties between RCA and its Japanese affiliate JVC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JVC) were severed.

[K7SGJ]

I'll have to take your word for it. I was never interested in CB.

I never really got into the 11 meter crazies as I usually had several ham rigs in my vehicles. But I sure made a shit-ton of $$ fixing them for those that did.

[KC9ECI]

There is nothing that could convince me to ever purchase another product by EFJohnson. I have their rigs in all of our fire apparatus. Had the one in our front line engine shit the bed. No RF out. Service tech came, swapped it out with a loaner, told me it would be back in 2 weeks. After a month, I contacted them and asked what was going on with the radio. They didn't know and would have to look in to it. 2 weeks later, they reply. Water intrusion. Not covered under warranty. $1000 to repair, $3700 to replace I told them I wanted pictures as I would be filing an insurance claim. I authorize them to fix it. Meanwhile, the more I think about it, the more pissed I get. I start giving them shit via twitter and facebook. This leads to a number of exchanges via email and me ultimately being told I was 'difficult to contact.' I replied 'I'm further disappointed in the time that it took for anyone from your company to contact me, and the claim that there were numerous attempts made to do is difficult to believe, unless of course they were using semaphore or smoke signals. You might let your Director of Operations know that telephone or email are both very reliable methods of communication these days. ' It was at this point that I was asked to call one of the VP's. By the end of that conversation there was no longer going to be any cost to us to repair that radio, and not a chance in hell that as long as I have anything to do with it, our fire dept will ever again purchase an EF Johnson product.

[kb2vxa]

I was never into the CB crazies either' when that shit started I sold my equipment and got a pretty penny for it too. Meanwhile I made a ton of money, shit stinks so I avoided it. One of my favorites because it was so easy, profitable and by popular demand was de-pinging that good performing but otherwise annoying on the air and to the operator Browning Eagle. I simply removed the axial lead 20uF 450VDC electrolytic across the receiver mute terminals on the back at $20 a snip. Additional profit was made by using the cap as a free replacement part in other equipment.

Heh, what I said about E. F. Johnson was "Now it's commercial two way FM gear, not all that popular." and you explained why.

[w2amr]

Their ham transmitters with the exception of the Viking 1 & 2 left something to be desired, power supplies and modulation transformers, they skimped on both. The worst was the desk kilowatt driven by the preferred Ranger, second choice the Valiant. At half power it sounded fine but at full AM output the power supply flagged and it sounded like mud. .So the audio on a Valiant sounds better when the transmitter is running at half power? You are a constant source of entertainment.:lol:

[NQ6U]

Most Valiants sounded the same no matter what the power.

http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/e6/80/cb/e680cba741b9d2e7b72672816df46b14.jpg

[kb2vxa]

"The worst was the desk kilowatt driven by the preferred Ranger, second choice the Valiant." The DESK KILOWATT is what I'm talking about, an AM final, not a linear amplifier, that operates at either 1KW or 500W input driven by the matching Ranger. The Valiant CAN drive the kilowatt BUT only with the RF drive and audio gain reduced and closely monitored because drive to the KW becomes unstable. I'm at a loss how a Valiant can operate at half power, or why someone would attempt it.

I'm glad I constantly entertain you, even if it is because you have some sort of reading difficulty. Since a picture is easier to understand, here's the desk with the Ranger used as an audio and RF driver.

[w2amr]

Most Valiants sounded the same no matter what the power.

http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/e6/80/cb/e680cba741b9d2e7b72672816df46b14.jpg
There's the Valiant, here's the Ranger
http://chud.com/nextraimages/yogics_000.JPG

[kb2vxa]

My God, it's full of Yogis!

[w2amr]

"The worst was the desk kilowatt driven by the preferred Ranger, second choice the Valiant." The DESK KILOWATT is what I'm talking about, an AM final, not a linear amplifier, that operates at either 1KW or 500W input driven by the matching Ranger. The Valiant CAN drive the kilowatt BUT only with the RF drive and audio gain reduced and closely monitored because drive to the KW becomes unstable. I'm at a loss how a Valiant can operate at half power, or why someone would attempt it.

I'm glad I constantly entertain you, even if it is because you have some sort of reading difficulty. Since a picture is easier to understand, here's the desk with the Ranger used as an audio and RF driver.I know what a desk KW is. And, I've had several Rangers over the years. Thanks for playing.

[n2ize]

Their ham transmitters with the exception of the Viking 1 & 2 left something to be desired, power supplies and modulation transformers, they skimped on both. The worst was the desk kilowatt driven by the preferred Ranger, second choice the Valiant. At half power it sounded fine but at full AM output the power supply flagged and it sounded like mud. Now it's commercial two way FM gear, not all that popular.

I have heard some awesome sounding Valiants running at full tilt. I wasn't too crazy about the pair of 6146's as modulators. I was thinking of replacing them with a pair of triode connected 807's or a pair of 811's. Might still do it if I ever get back to working on the Valiant. it was problematic on its own but otherwise a nice rig. The ranger itself was a pretty nice rig as well, I have heard a lot of beautiful sounding rangers out there. I never had a Desk Killowatt but I knew a few people who had the Johnson 500 which ran a 4-400 in the final. Modulated by a pair of 572B's in place of the 811's and a few minor mods to the speech amp/driver or bypassing the speech amp and pumping in a nice clean audio signal they sound pretty darned good. I own a Globe King 500 with a 4-400 in the RF deck and 811A's in the modulator deck. The stock RF deck is a bit flimsy and tends to zorch over now and then. I put a heavy duty inductor in mine and beefed up the variable caps. I should try modulating it with a pair of 572B's. I forget off hand if the 572B is a triode or a tetrode but in any event they could be triode connected.

[kb2vxa]

Few plate modulated transmitters sound good at less than full rated input because it raises the P-P modulator load impedance above the proper value. I'm not too happy with 6146s as modulators either, while they may be used they're not made for audio, 807s are but they have a different P-P rated impedance and don't make a good substitute in the Valiant. What I really don't like about the V is the 3 6146s parallel in the final which gives too low an RF output transformation ratio for good harmonic and spurious signal suppression. That's why the Apache and DX-100 having two give a cleaner output.

Globe had its problems because in an effort to keep price down while still turning reasonable profit Leo Meyerson used surplus parts and tended to skimp on ratings. I forgot which CW/AM transmitter a friend had, something in the 150W range, the surplus final and modulator tubes were cheap and plentiful when the rig was built but when he acquired it in the 70s they were made of unobtanium. He had to search far and wide to find them, at a very high price he had them shipped from England. When we got it whipped into shape it sounded great, none of that yellowy telephonium sound with a good mic on it. What I liked best was the built in modulation peak limiter. When the mod gain and mic gain were balanced out it held 100% without pumping or breathing. The unanswered question however is what to do when those tubes need replacement and the supply in England runs out, he sold it.

Oh, the 527B is a high-mu power triode for use in Class AB2, Class B, Class C RF, and audio amplifiers. I'd stick with the 811As, the 527Bs won't buy you any improvement as modulators. They have 300% the plate dissipation rating so unless you piss beat them in RF service like knocking the slats out of a Collins 30-L1 with high SWR even there the stock 811s will do. Oh, a fried 811 out of that Collins amp makes a neat tree topper for Ham Christmas too and the tree got it's picture taken for the QST December 99 issue. <gloat> <brag> <snicker>

[w2amr]

I have heard some awesome sounding Valiants running at full tilt. I wasn't too crazy about the pair of 6146's as modulators. I was thinking of replacing them with a pair of triode connected 807's or a pair of 811's. Might still do it if I ever get back to working on the Valiant. it was problematic on its own but otherwise a nice rig. The ranger itself was a pretty nice rig as well, I have heard a lot of beautiful sounding rangers out there. I never had a Desk Killowatt but I knew a few people who had the Johnson 500 which ran a 4-400 in the final. Modulated by a pair of 572B's in place of the 811's and a few minor mods to the speech amp/driver or bypassing the speech amp and pumping in a nice clean audio signal they sound pretty darned good. I own a Globe King 500 with a 4-400 in the RF deck and 811A's in the modulator deck. The stock RF deck is a bit flimsy and tends to zorch over now and then. I put a heavy duty inductor in mine and beefed up the variable caps. I should try modulating it with a pair of 572B's. I forget off hand if the 572B is a triode or a tetrode but in any event they could be triode connected.I tried a pair of 572B's in place of the 811's in my 500 once, and really didn't notice any difference.