About this amplifier....

This unit was rescued from the junkyard. I bought it from a military surplus dealer in East Georgia who had the cabinet and most of the interior. Missing was the power supply board, power transformer, front panel, bandswitch chain, load control chain and a few other goodies.

Having built a ‘look-alike’ 77 from scratch I took the challenge and restored the unit to better-than-new condition.

Enhancements include a hefty ‘Peter Dahl’ replacement transformer, heavy duty ‘Silicon Alley’ High Voltage rectifiers, larger 600-volt fuse holders, an improved turns-counter with larger numbers and a real crank for the tune control, and improved ‘overhead’ meter illumination. Meter lamps can now be replaced without removing the front panel. The second tube was added and a superior ‘switched’ RF choke was installed which makes for more efficient operation on 160 Meters and avoids the resonant choke syndrome permitting safe operation at 24 megahertz. The blower was outfitted with new bearings.

I ordered the bare front panel, knobs and the meters from ETO and ‘second-sourced’ the other components for the panel’s fabrication.

The amplifier was completely disassembled and cleaned. Silvered components were acid cleaned and polished. The project was started in the Autumn of 1993 and completed in the early Spring of 1994. The rig was sold to an Atlanta area ham. He wishes to remain anonymous.

-Dick Byrd, N4UQ

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