Gonset GSB201 Moderniziation.
YEARS ago, (1995 I think), I picked this old girl up at a local tailgate, and it came with the original manual. I traded an old Kenwood TS-7500 2 meter rig for it. As you can see in the pics, this amp was very rough, but I'm just attracted to 'old iron'. And at 81Lbs, this sure fits that bill just fine. I brought her home, hoisted it up on my heaviest bench, and brought it up on the variac. I recall that I got around 400W full-drive from it before backing away from it. While staring certain death in the face the whole time, I didn't want to "push any envelopes"... I was SO afraid of it after a day's worth of tinkering with it, that I built a sturdy dolly for it, and wheeled it under the bench, never to see daylight again.... Until today.
I'm sorry, but this is truly going to be a "saga", y'all., to be updated as I make any progress on it. But it's a flat mess. I plan to not only get her chooching again, but I intend to modernize the circuit as best I can as I go. I'm documenting this process here because I'm sure that if I'M willing to do this, there are other radio heads with these sweet old boatanchors under their bench. So let's do this!
I just hope my skill level is up to the task!
Here it is, in all of it's present OEM glory. I know, it's fugly. Outside of a new paint job at some point during this project, it'll likely remain fairly fugly. But I see an 81 pound "diamond in a cesspool".
YEARS ago, (1995 I think), I picked this old girl up at a local tailgate, and it came with the original manual. I traded an old Kenwood TS-7500 2 meter rig for it. As you can see in the pics, this amp was very rough, but I'm just attracted to 'old iron'. And at 81Lbs, this sure fits that bill just fine. I brought her home, hoisted it up on my heaviest bench, and brought it up on the variac. I recall that I got around 400W full-drive from it before backing away from it. While staring certain death in the face the whole time, I didn't want to "push any envelopes"... I was SO afraid of it after a day's worth of tinkering with it, that I built a sturdy dolly for it, and wheeled it under the bench, never to see daylight again.... Until today.
I'm sorry, but this is truly going to be a "saga", y'all., to be updated as I make any progress on it. But it's a flat mess. I plan to not only get her chooching again, but I intend to modernize the circuit as best I can as I go. I'm documenting this process here because I'm sure that if I'M willing to do this, there are other radio heads with these sweet old boatanchors under their bench. So let's do this!
I just hope my skill level is up to the task!
Here it is, in all of it's present OEM glory. I know, it's fugly. Outside of a new paint job at some point during this project, it'll likely remain fairly fugly. But I see an 81 pound "diamond in a cesspool".
Attachments
Last edited: