I got an email response through Eham this morning for an item I have for sale and replied back through the system. I got a permanent failure reply from my email provider. I tried it again and the got the same result. I checked the persons callsign and saw that they don't have an email address provided on the QRZ page. I copied the original email address into a new email reply and the same thing happened, but what I found was a different email address that failed. Evidently, it's cross linked somehow and makes me think this is a hacked email from a nonexistent address.
What a pain in the ass.
Billy N6YW

Bob
 I highly recommend that you join the Collins Collectors Association. The website content is enormous and the online email reflector is full of knowledgeable & experienced people who can help. You don't have to be a member to use the reflector
but if do join, the quarterly magazine, The Signal, is an exceptional 30+ page reference resource. Topics like this and others are routinely covered there. Go to the reflector and post a thread and see what happens. You will definitely get answers.
73 de Billy N6YW

Steve

The photos of the radio are on the web, of my actual radio. Just Google Johnson Viking Avenger and you'll see it.
I don't see here that I can post photos unless it's a link to a page. I was thinking of contacting the museum as well.
Thanks for the info, keep me posted! It would be great to have contact with a former employee.
73 de Billy N6YW

Greetings
I am in the beginning stages of restoring my Avenger and compiling research information beyond what is presently posted on the internet.
This is a story of a radio that was... never was. A production prototype that never was sold to the public, therefore very few exist.
There are estimates of as few as 22 being built, but I'm not going to stop at this figure out of my thirst for historical significance and correctness,
if that's even possible considering the amount of time passed since 1968.
My inclination is to search and contact as many past EF Johnson employees with knowledge of this rare piece of equipment.
This may also include anyone who has ever owned or presently owns an Avenger.

So, I am asking anyone willing to read this post, to inform me of any lead that may assist my quest for compiling contacts and relevant information
on this remarkable radio. I plan on publishing a series of articles that address the history and operation of the Avenger.
This will also be posted as a separate page on my website as I develop my data.
Credit will be given to those whose contribute to this project. I appreciate the time you took in reading this post and thank you in advance.

Looking forward to hearing from you.
73 de Billy N6YW

Pete
Nice to see you here, we met on the AM Fone site.
This totally makes sense and it seems to be exactly what happened. I should be able to find one of the Tempo amplifiers easily. I wonder if Uniden did the actual manufacturing for Henry like the Tempo transceivers.
Thanks for the postings gentlemen. This history is fun for sure.
73 de Billy N6YW

Floyd
Thanks for the reply.
In all of my years of collecting and restoring radios, I have never run across any mention of the Thunderbolt II. I own an original series Thunderbolt in nice working condition and hopefully will have the Avenger running and paired with it. I am fortunate enough to have the original manual and some spare boards including 2 power supplies. Anyway, a bit off topic.
What I find to be interesting about the advertisement in the manual is that it suggests that EF Johnson was gearing up internally for production. They had a scheme worked out, even if it was an artistic rendering and it was committed to print.
To me, this sort of points to doing things backwards, unless the suits upstairs called off the project before it could become
a reality. I would love to uncover the history of that project.
Billy N6YW

Greetings to the forum.

I am about to take ownership of a Johnson Viking Avenger HF transceiver. In the manual, it shows the associated optional accessories and one of them is a vastly cosmetically updated version of the Thunderbolt amplifier that matches the look and
aesthetics of the Avenger called the Thunderbolt II. Along with the Avenger which is extremely rare, I would hazard a guess
that it never actually went into production due to the fact that EF Johnson scuttled the Avenger project before it ever hit the market. Judging by the styling of the updated Thunderbolt II, I am willing to bet that they scuttled this idea too, or did they?
Has anyone ever seen such a model? If you're curious, you can log onto mods.dk and download the Avenger manual which is a trip unto itself, and see the amplifier in a rendered form, along with a matching external speaker which is surely quite rare if not impossible to find. If indeed the Thunderbolt II amplifier made it to pre production form, it's likely a couple of examples exist somewhere. Could you imagine my thrill of finding one to match up with the Avenger? It's likely impossible but you never know.
Any comments?
73 de Billy N6YW

Jeep
Thanks for the hint. I noticed the motor does get rather warm sitting at idle. I would be interested in this mod if you could share it. BTW, mine does a peculiar thing. Once the autotune cycle starts, it goes through the routine and stops then momentarily starts, and stops at two second intervals and keeps going unless I either remove power OR, place the channel switch in between channel numbers. It then behaves normally, goes through the routine and stops. The red light comes on.
The limit switches have been checked, along with the torque resistor. They're good, and also the ground seeker switch and the motor relay. It's very peculiar and I'm having difficulty in figuring this out.
Billy N6YW

Kenwood doesn't need the market share occupied by Icom and Yaesu. Kenwood's bottom line is consumer electronics, namely entertainment.
That's well noted. They are much more diversified in this regard. If Ham Radio died tomorrow, Kenwood would still be making money.
Kenwood produces a new radio as they see fit and they know the market will accept it. This strategy may irk some people but if you think about it, they are pretty savvy.
They don't have as much money tied up in R&D and manufacturing of numerous Ham Radio related products as Icom and Yaesu and they likely benefit from the warranty and service aspect.

Take a look at Yaesu. They have quite a lineup of gear in production and their own technological footprint.
The same holds true with Icom and God only knows what Icom has invested into the D-Star platform!
Personally, I don't own any recent Kenwood or Yaesu products except for my THF-6A which is still going strong 11 years after I purchased it.

I'm sure Kenwood has done their homework and the 990 will be a great radio. As to the remark about "appliance operators" allow me to comment. We should all be so happy for the "appliance operator". They keep our hobby and the radio business thriving. Not everyone can build a plate modulated AM transmitter from scratch but when you call CQ and a friendly voice pops out of your speaker, a great QSO is had and when it's all said and done, the last thing on your mind is wondering if that person was an appliance operator. In fact, that term is very base and a slap in the face to some very earnest participants in our wonderful hobby.

73, de Billy N6YW

Thank you. I have all of the manuals already but I appreciate your efforts.
I'm sure I'll get it sorted out. I am hoping that others who have had experience with the ART-13 might chime in with similar experiences. Once I have built the HV/LV supplies it will really be interesting to see how it works on the air. The ones I have heard so far really sound excellent.

Thank you
I got it figured out. I now have a peculiar behavior with the autotune routine. I will start with re-syncronization
of the mechanicals and take it from there. This should be an interesting to say the least.
What an amazing piece of engineering it is.

When I had my SB twins, SB-301/401 I had forgotten to grab the cables from Bill, W0QNI who I had purchased the rig from.
Upon setting it up on my bench for testing, I could not get them to behave correctly, at all. I was using what I had on hand, RG-58/U pruned down to about 24" as I recall. It was a failure. Bill shipped me the cables down two days later, which were RG-62 cut to the lengths specified as stock and according to Bill, it was the only way to go. He was adamant about this.
Sure to his word, he was correct. I installed them and all was well. The twins behaved like they were never separated at birth, Hi.
That's all I can say on the subject, other than a few discussions on the Collins reflector about the same thing. Many users of S-line equipment use the same cabling with excellent results.
73 N6YW

Progress...
After numerous replies offline, I have been able to get the autotune mechanism to work in both directions but there are some oddities in the behavior of my ART-13. The limit switches work FB, but the way inwhich the thing settles into the ready mode isn't right. In one direction, upon stopping the tune function, the battery meter function shows a large voltage drop and the filaments dim. This might suggest a bad relay contact or a wiring fault but I can't be sure just yet.
Because the wires were disconnected from the motor terminals, it suggests that the previous owner may have given up
on troubleshooting the system. Not me. I never give up. This transmitter will be functional by Thanksgiving as I had challenged myself with that date.
Stay tuned...

Floyd
Thank you very much!
I will try that, and it makes sense after going back to the manual and looking at the basic principle of the
interfacing. I'm really looking forward to seeing how the Q-Multiplyer works for the SX-28.
73 de N6YW

I inherited what may have been one of the worlds largest private collection of Heathkits, from W0QNI...
"The Heathkit Junkie". It was staggering. I had to drive from LA to Novato in a 20' ft. box truck to acquire that pile.
It took nearly 5 hours to load the truck  and it was FULL when we were done!
I had multiples of nearly every piece of Heath amateur equipment, including 3 SS-9000's. There were 27 SB-101's, and 17 HW-101's, just as an example. Thankfully, I didn't have to contend with too much heavy iron like the Apache or DX-100's.
It's all gone now as it was just overwhelming. Remember that episode of Star Trek where the Tribbles kept multiplying?
That's what it was like. Someone who was "green" with envy wanted to buy all of it from me, so I let it go.
I might know a little bit about those green monsters...