[Amps] Nice homebrew 8877

[Charlie Young]

K8RI said:

> The parts alone were worth more than that and although it might not mean 
> much I saw it as a piece of history as well.


I agree. 

 

Last fall, a similar opportunity was presented to me. Zach Reynolds W4TXL SK was the grandson of RJ Reynolds, and had several custom built amplifiers in his station. After Zach's passing in 1979, my friend AC8L (SK) bought one of the custom newer amps, a pair of 8877's. Jay AC8L lost interest in ham radio and never put this amp on the air.   

 

The Reynolds amp became available and considering the superb quality of the construction and the history, I felt it deserved to live.  It is the finest example of mechanical construction I have seen.  

 

The filament hourmeter works, and it shows 8.5 hours.  From the looks of the amp, I expect this indicates actual run time. 

 

This is more power than I ever want to run, but I just could not pass this up.  It makes a great conversation piece, and is very impressive looking, to hams and non hams.  It has a viewing window in the RF compartment, and high intensity lighting on the inside.  Guess Zach missed seeing the filaments and plates of his big glass tubes. The meters are all backlit in red.  In the dark, the thing looks awesome! 

 

I figure it will make a great legal limit RTTY amplifier. 

 

73 Charlie N8RR 

 


 
 		 	   		  
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