Johnson Viking Valiant 1 & Collins 75A4

The AM Station, Johnson Viking Valiant 1 & Collins 75A2 Receiver

The Johnson Viking Valiant was sold in the later 1950's by E.F. Johnson Co. of Waseca Minnesota. The transmitter manual states: "VIKING "VALIANT" - 275 watts CW, 200 watts phone. Built in VFO - a transmitter with power and flexibility! As an exciter it will drive any of the popular kilowatt level tubes. Bandswitching 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meters.... Net Weight 73 lbs, Dimensions 11 5/8 x 21 1/8 x 17 3/8 ". The Valiant I was offered as a kit or factory assembled. It runs three 6146's in the final and two 6146's in the modulator. I typically run 100 watts output on AM. The Valiant is my favorite cw/am transmitter and is a joy to use! With an Astatic 10DA dynamic microphone, the Valiant has a very nice AM quality. I would love to find a Valiant II.

The Collins 75A2 Receiver was sold by Collins Radio Company in the mid 1950's. It uses 17 tubes and covers 160 meters thru 10 meters. The receiver uses a rack mount configuration and is mounted in a sturdy (read heavy) factory steel cabinet. The radio weighs 50 pounds and has a wrinkle finish painted in a "Saint James Grey" color. The dimensions are: 21 1/8" wide x 12 1/2 " high x 13 1/6" deep. While I prefer using a 75A4 on cw (mainly because of outstanding mechanical filters and passband tuning), I feel the 75A2 sounds wonderful on cw! It is a joy to use. The 270G-3 speaker has beautiful audio, mainly due to a large speaker with good low frequency response. The 270G-3 is a bit hard to identify because it does not have any Collins labels or decals. That is the factory configuration- no markings. It is finished in the same wrinkle finish and Saint James Grey color as the 75A2 receiver. This speaker has a new grill and silver flocking installed. It is a beautiful speaker with the original color flocking restored.

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