Hercules

[Steve Ellington]

Here's the story.

I owned a Hercules amp for a long time and liked it. Somehow, to my
regret, I sold it and have missed it ever since. QSK was great and it was
very easy to use. I especially liked it's appearance. So last Friday while
looking through the flea market at Dayton, I spotted one that looked like
new. Even the power supply was flawless in appearance. The guy had it
marked for only $300 which seems quite cheap. Upon questioning him, he
said that it had been working great except for a vibration in the fan and
when he got inside, he managed to break a ceramic capacitor. He removed
the covers and showed me the broken capacitor. I knew that the final
transistors would be tought to replace and I was skeptical so I offered
him $250 which he readily accepted. 

Well, my fears were correct. The finals are bad. TenTec will not offer any
assistance because the original manufacture of the 4 final transistors is
no longer in business. Motorola's MRF429 looks like a likely replacement
however, they will cost me $50 each making my investment $450. Still a
good deal but I'm just not sure if I should continue.

First, let me offer the Amp to anyone interested in tackeling this
project. I'll even take a $50 loss and let it go for $200 plus shipping. 
Any comments are quite welcome. By the way, the power supply works
perfectly and produces the needed 48 volts. Also, the bias supply, qsk,
relay system et al  work fine. All it needs is 4 very potent transistors.

73

Steve Ellington N4LQ@IGLOU.COM  Louisville, Ky