Johnson 4730 Cb Radio, What were they thinking!? 🤦♂️🤷♀️
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- Опубліковано 6 кві 2024
- Giday all, recent arrival into the shack was this Johnson 40 channel AM/SSB CB radio. Its a great radio on RX and TX, however what were they thinking when they designed it?
Lets take a look.
My guess it's made for truckers who mount the radio overhead. Mic out the back keeps the cord from interfering with the operation of knobs. The selector on the left also makes sense as it's closer to you.
I think that is a good reason.
So the Johnson was heavily used by truckers…Johnson wanted the mic jack close to the front windshield because the radio was hung in the truck..
There thought was that guys would be pulling on the jack getting up into their truck and damaging the cable
Thank you for the info.
40+ years ago I had a very similar Johnson Messenger 23 channel radio, I think it was made around '76. They were very good radios, I believe Johnson was making business band radios at the time so a lot of quality components were shared. At least this mic has a connector - the one I had was HARD WIRED and came out the side of the radio. Never really used it because it was AM only, I talked mostly on slideband at the time. I was a CB tech way back then, my favorite chassis were the Uniden 858 chassis. Had a 138XLR in the mobile and a President Washington for the base, both with 120+ channels (they weren't that broadband, I think I could get about 80 channels before hitting the -3dB points. Properly aligned, they were generally tighter than the 8719 based chassis (2000's, 148's, etc.), and had phenomenal receive after changing out a FET in the front end and modifying an IF or mixer transformer... too long ago, don't recall the exact mod. May have been in Secret CB????
10/4
I remember these radios
never did liked them one bit but others did
Anyway another good video
Cheers
i have the model 4140 digital read out anl switch. power volume and squelch control find very clear on receive works great guy gave it to me for saudering a couple of wires on his guitar
Bargain!👍
Went with harvest crew a little bit back in the day , they had these in trucks & 2 machines , had pretty good range actualy. Mounted in open area with ext. speaker on top.
Must have got a deal on them from who ever in Oklahoma where they were from , same guy did the business bands according to stickers on them all.
after the first few moments ... i just wanted to look inside ....modulation on some of those was so simple to adjust ... my best radio was a colt 485 black shadow ...that had a row of extra toggle switches each one was another bank of channels ... doctored by a pair of ham enthusiasts in downtown toronto in the early 80s ,,, wish i still had it :)
Back in the day they used to mount radios on the center console of semi-trucks. The mic jack on the back let them mount the mic holder on top of the radio so the cord didn't stress bending to a 180 degree angle when the mic was in the holder. Other than that ask the bean counters that thought the radio up.
My first cb radios in the 70s were 23 channel Johnson and Krako. The Johnson had a tiny microphone the size of a dollar coin with the trigger in the upper corner 😂
There wasn't much room for the mic jack on the front of the radio.
I had a 23 channel 352 and loved it. Only reason I got rid of it was to get a 40 channel radio.
The analog dial versions of just about any 40 channel radios are 1977 only. 1978 and later tend to have LED digital readouts.
I had the 352, and the only gripe was the rear-mounted microphone connector.
AFAIK, there were four versions:
23 channel 352, crystal control.
23 channel 352D, PLL synthesizer.
40 channel analog dial
40 channel LED channel display.
These are also called Vikings and not Messengers.
The only thing that would make sense with the rear MIC jack, is if the radio was intended to the flush mounted in the dashboard of a car, with the microphone installed remotely via an extension cable, (mic to be kept in the glovebox, etc).
Still a weird idea isn't it.
Nice radio! I have the 4740 and I also have no clue why they put the mike connector on the back.
That makes two of us mate!
Great video, any chance you doing a video with the covers off so we can look inside ?
73
Yes I can
@@vkradio1656 Thank you I can't wait.
Don't like the circuit board and design of johnson CB boards over sized caps ECT it's like weird inside. But another ind to collect put on your shelf .
Kic hack on rear medal hole saw drill to side of radio out 4 pin in it.
I was never a fan of Johnson radios... Just didn't like the look of them...
Totally agree👍👍
I was a midland and Cobra fan...My dad hated this radio, he broke 3 Mike cords because of this stupid idea
I bet he did, some of the replies say it was for the truckers. So why did the rest not follow?