[Amps] orphan amp?

[David A. Pruett]

I own a PT-2500A.  My buddy bought the demo unit at the Dayton Hamvention 
in 1984.  They sold it cheap rather than carry it back.

My understanding was that Viewstar was own by Tom Hammond, the same Tom 
Hammond of Hammond transformer company.  The design was eventually bought 
by B&W, who kept the same model number.  The only difference that I'm aware 
of is that they deleted an area of black paint on the front panel.

Viewstar disappeared a long time ago, although I believe Hammond 
transformer is still around.  B&W might be a place for parts.

I've owned mine since 1989.  When I first got it, there was some high-band 
arcing in the bandswitch.  My solution was to devote it to 160M where it 
has generated a lot of big contest scores.  Yes, the T/R relay is slow and 
it clunks.  Also, the relay keying voltage is 120 VDC (not a typo).  I 
added my own soft-keying with $10 of part from Radio Shack.

It still easily makes legal limit on 160M with 100W drive going through a 
W3NQN bandpass filter.  This is with the original 1984 Eimac 3-500Zs.

It might not be the best amp on the planet, but it's done a good job for me.

Dave/K8CC

At 07:23 PM 10/7/04 -0400, you wrote:
>   Can anyone here identify an amp built by B&W
>     model PT-2500-A ??? A friend of mine has one he got for peanuts, it has
>2 3-500s , one of which is bad, the meter is bad and who knows what else
>might be wrong, but he needs the manual and all help he can get.!!
>    I will help him as much as I can , but he lives 150 miles from me so it
>isn't easy. Any help will be appreciated.!!
>     carl / kz5ca
>
>
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