Gray 150(A) or 100A or Lookalike AM LED

[SuperLid]

Anyone have a Gray 150 type amp with plastic switches? PCB says g-100A, pair of MRF455, class C.

I am trying to determine, if the amp was built with the AM LED always on. It appears that it may be some kind of cost cutting thing, as the SSB delay switch, is SPST. The Gray 150's I have seen that use toggle switches, use DPDT, I believe to switch the LED on/off.

What is this thing? Anyone have one of these things?

Thanks,

SL

 

[AudioShockwav]

That looks like a old TnT amp same guys who made the Supermod with2x455s and the big knob on the front.
I would not doubt it was built that way.
Post picture inside is it a mess of yellow Teflon wire?

73
Jeff

 

[AudioShockwav]

 

[AudioShockwav]

This mess.
This was one of the later ones that looked like a little kid wired them up.
When Billy Ward passed a bunch of this stuff showed up on flea bay.
The older ones didn't look like that, they were fairly neat but these ....

73
Jeff

 

[SuperLid]

It has a bunch of yellow wires that are not teflon, but not in a rats nest like the one you show. If you look at the AM LED in your photo, you can see it is tied to the pre-amp switch. I think this is how they did it, half assed. I am going to re-purpose the AM LED as a TX indicator, rather than duplicate the power LED, or look at the traces that go to the front panel, to see is there is one tied to the T/R relay. I could hang the delay LED off of that and the base of the keying transistor. Not a big deal, more of an annoyance, that they would do this. A schematic would be nice, but I can't find one. The one on CBT is wrong, no SSB delay.

The amp I have here, looks like an old Gray, not like what you have there. Big old AMF relays, perpendicular PCB with keying and preamp.

I am reworking this amp to test HG2879 in class AB. No one has said anything about running them in AB, except some of the class B dirt box builders, that say the HG can't handle AB, yet Texas Star says no problem. Time to see for myself.

Thanks,

SL

 

[SuperLid]

It has a bunch of yellow wires that are not teflon, but not in a rats nest like the one you show. If you look at the AM LED in your photo, you can see it is tied to the pre-amp switch. I think this is how they did it, half assed. I am going to re-purpose the AM LED as a TX indicator, rather than duplicate the power LED, or look at the traces that go to the front panel, to see is there is one tied to the T/R relay. I could hang the delay LED off of that and the base of the keying transistor. Not a big deal, more of an annoyance, that they would do this.

The amp I have here, looks like an old Gray, not like what you have there. Big old AMF relays, perpendicular PCB with keying and preamp.

I am reworking this amp to test HG2879 in class AB. No one has said anything about running them in AB, except some of the dirt box builders, that say the HG can't handle AB, yet Texas Star says no problem. Time to see for myself.

Thanks,

SL

 

[SuperLid]

It has a bunch of yellow wires that are not teflon, but not in a rats nest like the one you show. If you look at the AM LED in your photo, you can see it is tied to the pre-amp switch. I think this is how they did it, half assed. I am going to re-purpose the AM LED as a TX indicator, rather than duplicate the power LED, or look at the traces that go to the front panel, to see is there is one tied to the T/R relay. I could hang the delay LED off of that and the base of the keying transistor. Not a big deal, more of an annoyance, that they would do this.

The amp I have here, looks like an old Gray, not like what you have there. Big old AMF relays, perpendicular PCB with keying and preamp.

I am reworking this amp to test HG2879 in class AB. No one has said anything about running them in AB, except some of the dirt box builders, that say the HG can't handle AB, yet Texas Star says no problem. Time to see for myself.

Thanks,

SL

 

[SuperLid]

Wow.....shameless

 

[AudioShockwav]

That top one looks like a old BD built Gray, the bottom one Pride.
The whole thing was Billy bought messanger when Victor stopped building, and he got a big pile of partially built amps he and a couple family members were building amps, then they found billy over his bench no longer with the world.
His Sister gathered it all up and sold it on e bay and someone bought it and started throwing them together, that's when the rats nest wiring started showing up.
There were also messanger amps around that time they built from leftover parts....
Strange times around then.

73
Jeff

 

[SuperLid]

That top one looks like a old BD built Gray, the bottom one Pride.
The whole thing was Billy bought messanger when Victor stopped building, and he got a big pile of partially built amps he and a couple family members were building amps, then they found billy over his bench no longer with the world.
His Sister gathered it all up and sold it on e bay and someone bought it and started throwing them together, that's when the rats nest wiring started showing up.
There were also messanger amps around that time they built from leftover parts....
Strange times around then.

73
Jeff

The last photos of the Pride and the Gray, were to show that the Gray is pretty much a clone of the Pride. The ONLY difference between the two, is the input attenuator and the front panel switches. The main and daughter PCB's are almost exactly the same.

 

[AudioShockwav]

The last photos of the Pride and the Gray, were to show that the Gray is pretty much a clone of the Pride. The ONLY difference between the two, is the input attenuator and the front panel switches. The main and daughter PCB's are almost exactly the same.

A lot of boards came out of Escondido and Southern California they were sold in bulk,
RF Parts was the center of the universe with Billy the king of the Motorola market.
I remember two guys that ran around SoCal selling radios, amps and parts to build them out of a old ambulance at one point...


73
Jeff

 

[nomadradio]

The ghost of Billy. No negative feedback.

73