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Gray 300 ... Any opinion about this amp?

70cst

Well-Known Member
Dec 4, 2009
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I ran across a mid 80's GRAY 300 4 pill SSB, FM, AM LINEAR AMP ...what your experience with these amps? Good/Bad? Thanks in advance.
 
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Mid to late 80's amp, worked ok, but was nothing to write home about, were better choices for the same money so I never bothered with them. Always considered the Gray Near Bottom Shelf material.
 

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Mid to late 80's amp, worked ok, but was nothing to write home about, were better choices for the same money so I never bothered with them. Always considered the Gray Near Bottom Shelf material.

Thanks for the info .. Sooooo what were the better amps for AM/SSB back in the 80's?
 
I've had and ran a couple of these. I liked the earlier onethe best. Never had a problem with either of mine. Lots of audio and more than enough power to do what I wanted to do. Only sold them when truck drivers game me some stupid money for them. Kinda with I still had one. I do have a custom 4 2879 box that does really well with a good driver infront of it. I again liked the Gray 300
 
Thanks for the info .. Sooooo what were the better amps for AM/SSB back in the 80's?

We went through quite a few amps, Started out we ordered a couple cases of the Gray amps, quality was a bit spotty, and we ended up with more then a few DOA. After that, even though the price was attractive I stuck with Messenger, Texas Star, Or TNT almost exclusively.
 
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Opinions are like assholes everyone has one. The gray 300 i had worked awesome on am and ok on ssb.
 
Mid to late 80's amp, worked ok, but was nothing to write home about, were better choices for the same money so I never bothered with them. Always considered the Gray Near Bottom Shelf material.
The Gray 300 and all Gray's were top shelf a engineer out of OK city build these out of his basement and were the best on the market. I have to order one and waited 6 months to get mine and was worth the wait.

A 300 would test out around 450 thru 475 always great internal parts I pickup in 1989 and ran it until some asshole broke in to my Rig and stole with my 29 classic CB with the gray.

I'm Hoping to find one in good shape to use with my CB.
 
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Actually its a 14 year old post from 2009.:giggle:
I own a grey 300 since 1988. I added feedback circuits to it and a fan, and it rocks just as described. 450ish PEP loud and clear. Mine has rocker switches and a meter.
Well yes but i was going by the last time it was brought up.
 
I added feedback circuits
Does that mean you removed Billy's bogus twisted-wire "neutralizing" capacitor?

Then again, maybe someone removed it up the line before it got to you.

Gotta find some pics of that dismal trick.

And for those wondering what I've been blithering about, this amplifier was made with a single unshielded wire connected to the center pin of each coax socket. Each of these would connect to the "common" pin of one relay pole. But the two wires were twisted tightly together for an inch or so between the rear panel coax sockets and the relay.

Twisting two insulated wires together creates a capacitor. And, no joke, the textbook name for a capacitor made from a twisted pair of wires is "gimmick" capacitor.

But this particular trick did not properly cancel out unwanted RF feedback in the Gray. Made it worse, typically.

The cure is a resistor-plus-capacitor negative-feedback network across each individual RF transistor. This technique has dominated what gets manufactured for decades. Just works better.

And if you did leave that gimmick capacitor in place, how the devil did you make it stable?

73
 

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