Quote Originally Posted by n2ize View Post
If you want 100w on 75 and 160 AM go for a Johnson Viking 2 (CD+ 122 VFO). You can't go wrong. I own one. First thing I did was to relocated the wirewound resistor under the chassis of the VFO and the stability of the vfo improved dramatically.For a 60 year old VFO it stays where I put it. That rig is a workhorse, built like an army tank, easy to modify and work on, very forgiving, is very capable of "hi fi" AM with relatively simple mods and likes to kkeep on ticking.. Many other great mods for it too like solid stating out the power supplies (very easy just replace the hollow state rectifiers with solid state, easy to change the mod Iron but not nessesary, switching from 807 modulators to 811's , etc. all depending on how far you want to go with the thing. I'll admit, it's not the prettiest rig in the world but for an ancient radio it can still pull its own weight and then some. CD version (full coverage from 1.8 - 30 mc. or the ham version) you can't go wrong.
Back in the 80's ,Phil/KB2MAM was bitching on the air about not having any projects. That summer I picked up a Viking II and A 122 VFO at the Gloucester county hamfester, then had UPS ship it to Staten island as a gift . He restored it , modified the audio, and it sounds great. When he passed, I got it back from his estate. I have it paired with a really nice National NC-173. It is a very special transmitter. I also have the Valiant which was his primary transmitter. I have that paired with my NC-303.