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Free Hat!
Post a review of a current model Alpha product on eHam or your favorite online review system and receive a FREE hat with YOUR CALL embroidered on the back
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We want you to tell the world about your experience with Alpha products. It's the best advertising we can find.
If you post a review of a current model Alpha amplifier on
the eHam review system at www.eHam.net and/or any other online review
system that you feel comfortable using, and send us a note pointing it out, WE WILL SEND YOU A FREE HAT WITH YOUR CALL EMBROIDERED ON THE BACK.
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Tube Warranty Extension
available now
| We've put together an extended tube warranty program for new amplifier sales. Our normal (industry leading) warranty is four years on the amplifier, and one year on the tube(s). We're now offering a 4/4 warranty to cover the amp and extend the tube warranty for the coincident amp warranty. This offer is only available to NEW orders. The prices for the extension are as follows:
Alpha 9500 Autotune
one 3CX1500A7 - $275
Alpha 8410 - Manual Tune
both 4CX1000's - $375
Alpha 8406 - 6 Meter amp
one 4CX1500 - $325
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Financing???
| Are there hams out there that would like to see a financing program for our products? We'd like to hear from you. We were thinking a program like 50% down, and the rest paid off over 24 months, at a reasonable interest rate, could help. If you're interested in a program like this, call Molly at 303-473-9232 and express your interest. We've been looking at this for a while and would like to know if it's worth the time to put together a program.
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Upcoming Hamfests we're attending
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6m ENTHUSIAST EVENT, AUSTIN, 10/1-10/2
PACIFICON, SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, 10/15-10/16
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Thinking about a new amplifier but just can't quite swing a new 9500 or 8410?
Here's a picture of an 87A. We get trade-ins all the time. Our techs go through them, make sure they're up to par, and we post them in the preowned section.
A PREOWNED Alpha amplifier will get you legendary ALPHA quality without the new amp price tag.
Why buy a lesser amplifier from a different manufacture when you can get a preowned ALPHA for about the same price?
Why not own the best.
There's a special section on our website listing our certified preowned equipment HERE.
Or call Molly at 303-473-9232 and ask her about the Preowned Alpha Inventory.
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| FANTASTIC!
We're shipping our 8410 manual tune amplifier, and the 9500 auto tune amplifier FROM STOCK! This hasn't happened for a very, very long time. Thanks to all the Alpha employees for making this happen. It's an exciting step for us as we work on our new projects. We hope to ship our new 6 meter, full legal limit amplifier this month.
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| Our Website Link |
Anyone want to write articles for the website or Newsletter? If you want to write a technical article that HF, Contesters, and/or DX hunters would enjoy, email steve at stevef@rfconcepts.com telling him what you have in mind. We pay for articles!
Anyone want to help us populate the website with great products Alpha should be selling?
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| Pretty well! We've made great progress in the shop.
Remember - we have some NOS (new, old stock) parts that are 40 years old! We still repair amplifiers that were purchased new in the 70's. If you're looking for QRO parts, call us!
We're turning amps in about a 2 weeks. The only amps in the shop that have been there longer than 2 weeks are ones we're waiting on parts from our vendors. We're still trying to get it down below a week, but if you've got an amp that needs some service, now is the time!
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to all of our Alpha customers and enthusiasts.
We're thrilled you're enjoying our products. Let us know if you have any questions or comments.
All the best, and 73's from the whole gang at RF Concepts/Alpha Amplifiers.
Steve, WA2NFR
Michael, AA6DY
Glenn, AEØQ
Brad, KØHM
Carey, KXØR
Molly, WØMOM
Gordon, WØRUN
Mike
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Letter from the President,
Steve Farkas, WA2NFR |
 September 2010 -
There's been lots going on here at the company. As you know, we've caught up on our backlog and are shipping our manual tune, 8410 amplifier and our 9500 automatic tune amplifiers from stock. This isn't something that's happened in many, many years and I wanted to again acknowledge all the employees and vendors for a job well done. Some of our other products have shipped in batches, and we're driving the group to put these in stock too. It's been fits and starts but we'll get it done. We built a big batch of Wattmeters and they're completely sold out. Same with the Dummy Load. Filled the backlog, had them in stock for a bit, and now we've been cleaned out.
The 15th of this month marks the one year anniversary of Michael and I owning RF Concepts/Alpha Amplifier and, well to say the least, it's been quite a engrossing endeavor. My bumper sticker on my car should be "so much to do, so little time". On the other hand, it's been tons of fun and we've made some amazing progress. If you've been following the story, we cleaned up most of the operational issues, found steady parts suppliers for our production requirements, brought the repair time down to a reasonable level (more work to do here), built what is the beginning of a worldwide dealer network, and most importantly, put hundreds of our amplifiers in their proper place - in operating positions in many of your shacks. My partner, Michael, AA6DY even got his last month. He actually ordered it a long, long (long) time ago.
We had the chance to attend a few hamfests this summer and meet a bunch of fellow hams. We plan on attending more shows as time permits.
But, it's not enough. This great brand needs new great products - and we're working on this. We're looking for people that can help us expand our line of wonderful radio products. To do this we need electrical and mechanical engineers that have an appreciation for our ham community and a passion for excellence. If you're interested in helping us with either electronics and/or electromechanical projects - call me. If you have a product designed or an idea for a great project that would help the ham community and would look great with an Alpha or RF Concepts name on it - call me. One of the specific projects we want to take on, but are having trouble finding someone capable of executing it, is a Switch Mode Power Supply that's capable of delivering the 3600VA of power we need for our amps. If you know of anyone that would be interested in designing one for us, please drop me an email or call me at the company - 303-473-9232.
We're having a great time building our company. As always, if there are any comments, please feel free to drop me a note any time or just say Hi at stevef@rfconcepts.com. Over the last few months, I've met some of the nicest hams. It's a wonderful hobby, isn't it?
73
Steve, WA2NFR
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Letter from the Vice President of Sales and Support, Molly Hardman, W0MOM
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Over the past few weeks, I've had the opportunity to travel
to Huntsville, AL to participate in the Hamfest there and also to Boxboro, MA
to share the HRO booth at the New England ARRL convention. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting so many of
our existing customers, hearing about your usage of our amplifiers and also
connecting with new customers. In
Huntsville we had a full booth, running a 9500 on Saturday and an 8410 on
Sunday. We also included our Nixie
tube clock raffle - this clock was won by KG4TIM
. I will be at W9DXCC in
Chicago on September 11th and at Pacificon in California in
mid-October. Please contact me to
let me know of an amateur related event near you that you would like us to
attend - I can't promise to be at each one, but we do want to hear from
you! At each of these events we
run an amplifier, all day long - our equipment is rated for key-down
performance and we want you to have an opportunity to see it in action.....
Our Alpha 9500 amplifier has been reviewed by QST in their
October 2010 edition - we're pretty proud of what they wrote - although it's
nothing we couldn't have told you ourselves, hi, hi. Please let me know if you'd like a reprint of the article, or download a copy HERE.
Since the first Alpha amplifiers were produced by ETO, our
goal has always been to have you, our customers, on the air with a QRO
signal. Our amplifiers have always
been built by hand, with top of the line components, by assemblers and ham
operator technicians who know that they will be responsible for any units that
are ever returned to us for warranty service. It is not unusual for us to see a 25 year old, Alpha 78 (for
example) arrive at the lab for repair for the FIRST time since the unit was
originally shipped - in most cases with the original tubes. Each successive Alpha amplifier model
has been built on the design of the previous units so that in today's
production line you can both see the heritage of the earlier models and also
see the improvements that we have incorporated to take advantage of today's
technology. Anyone who has
had to change the blower on their Alpha 87A or Alpha 89 amplifiers will marvel
to look inside an Alpha 9500. The 4 pages of instructions for the earlier amps
are replaced by a few lines - this is just one of the benefits that you get
from our history of building and designing amplifiers over the past 40
years.
I will be talking about the history and heritage of Alpha
amplifiers and our current production units at W9DXCC in Chicago in September -
I am indeed fortunate to work with such a great product!
We are launching a new program this month - our current best
in the industry warranty is 4 years on the amplifier and 1 year on the tube(s). The tube warranty is provided by the
particular manufacturer from whom we purchase them. Effective immediately, we will begin offering a 4/4 warranty
- 4 years on the amp AND 4 years on the tube for a small additional cost. We are confident that our amplifiers
include sufficient fault protection that we can carry the additional tube
warranty ourselves.
- On the Alpha 9500, $275 will purchase you a 4
year warranty on the 8877 tube in the amplifier.
- On the Alpha 8410, $375 will get you a full 4
year warranty on the PAIR of 4CX1000 tubes in the amplifier.
- The 4CX1500B tube in the Alpha 8406 will carry a
full 4 year warranty for an additional $325.
73,
Molly, WØMOM
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Letter from the Vice President of Engineering,
Gordon Hardman, W0RUN
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A Peek Under the Hood of the Alpha Power
8406
Alpha has not had a six meter amplifier in production for
more than five years. A limited number of 6m amplifiers were built using the
Svetlana 4CX1600B tetrode. This technically very nice tube was plagued with
availability problems, and fewer than 20 out of the first batch of 50 were
built before the very reluctant decision was made to "pull the plug". Using a
high-efficiency quarter-wave tank circuit, these units are a dream to use. I
had the privilege of using one during development and on two dxpeditions (3Y0X,
K5D). It ran great on SSB, CW and on the EME modes of wsjt. Recently,
availability of the 4CX1500B at reasonable prices, as well as the socket which
is used in the AP8410 made it feasible to re-visit a single-band
full-legal-limit 6m amplifier. This is the AP8406, which is currently nearing
the end of the FCC type certification testing, and this seemed like a good time
to give a preview of the product.
Part of the reason for using a tetrode is the availability
of a highly reliable power supply and controller from the AP8410. Since both
are manual-tune amplifiers, very small modifications were needed to adapt it
for the AP8406 and take advantage of this battle-proven design. The idea of
using two 4CX1000A tubes, as in the 8410, was briefly considered. However, the
high capacitance (especially on the input) made the matching problematic. Also, the stray inductances are easier
to control in a single tube design. Checking the tube characteristics indicated
that at least 1500 watts should be obtainable with reasonable efficiency.
Finally, this single-tube single-band approach produced the most reasonable
cost. As a final legacy from the 8410, with minor modifications the tube deck
board and output T/R board were useable in the 8406.
In any VHF amplifier, the most critical design decision is
the output tank network topology. The transmission line design in the old Alpha
6, while efficient, was difficult and expensive to build. A pi-L topology was
evaluated, but the output capacitance of the tube and other considerations made
achieving coverage of the full band difficult. The pi-L design is widely used
at HF, as it allows the required harmonic attenuation to be obtained without
further filtering. This turns out not to be possible at 6m, as the harmonic
requirements for this band fall under the VHF requirements and are much tougher
to meet. So, since an auxiliary filter would be needed, other options for the
tank could be explored.
This is the arrangement finally settled on. It allowed full
coverage of the band with two economical air-variable capacitors. These are
rugged units, made by the same manufacturer who makes the capacitors for all
our other products. A single large silver plated inductor completes the
arrangement. This is made from half-inch copper tubing which is silver plated
after being formed to shape. The whole tank is in the air flow that crosses the
center partition after passing through the power supply. After the tube itself,
the tank circuit is where most of the remainder of the waste heat is generated
in the amplifier, and this arrangement ensures that all the tank components
remain within their temperature ratings. The cooling system uses an external
high pressure muffin fan and an internal crossflow fan pressurizing the tube
deck. As with all Alpha amplifiers, it is a "single pass" system, and all waste
heat is conducted away from the tube anode using a chimney, to prevent any
possibility of recirculation within the cabinet.
The output lowpass filter is just as rugged as the rest of
the amplifier. It is a single
stage unit optimized for low loss at 6m. The inductor is made from wide silver
plated strap material. Measured
insertion loss was 0.14 dB.
The capacitors are low-loss porcelain types, and the PC
board has slots so they can cool from both sides. Silver-solder is used for all
joints. It is mounted just above the inlet to the crossflow fan, so it receives
copious air flow as well.
So, given that it is well built, how does it perform?
Results in the lab and on the air have validated that the design exceeds our
expectations. To verify key-down-no-limit operation, it was run at 1,500 watts output
CW for two hours. At the end, the cover was removed and all components checked
with an infrared temperature probe, and the temperature rises were modest and
within limits everywhere. Two-tone testing was performed using two radios and a
hybrid combiner to ensure a clean test signal. The result was that the third
order products were more than 35 dB below one tone on the output. Harmonics are
all below (in most cases considerably below) FCC limits.
On-air testing has been limited so far, but the results have
all indicated that this unit has a clean signal that lives up to the 4CX1500b's
reputation for excellent linearity in SSB service. As we ramp up to full
production, we hope that the sunspots return, so hopefully there will be some
F2 propagation. But if not, you can still work dxcc on 6m using EME or
scatter....
73's
Gordon, W0RUN
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| Letter from the Director Of Do It All, Brad Focken, K0HM
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In past issues, we've looked at the 9500 programming and station
issues. I thought it a good idea to take a step back and review some of the issues we deal with on the older Alpha 87A. Many of the Alpha 87A's are finding new homes as original owners sell them and step up to our Alpha 9500. Here is a little something to
keep in mind if your 87a should develop a problem.
Let's say your 87A has
been humming along for years and has had no problems. Now all of the
sudden it will not turn on. DON'T just try to turn it on a bunch of times - there's protection code in the amp that, if it faults too many times, it goes into a mode called Fault 99. To get it out of Fault 99 you have to connect to it with a computer and stuff some bytes directly in memory. Try to avoid this process if possible. It's there to protect the amp from repeated faults, but it's a pain to deal with once it's faulted. First things first. Unplug the
amp and wait 10 seconds then plug it back in and try it. Sometimes, with a surge of power, the amp will get confused and unplugging it, waiting, and repowering it is the only way to get its brains back. With this
confusion come the false faults - which add up. At 6 faults, you get a Fault 99. A fresh start (complete removal of power to the amp) is always good when something
odd happens. If you just keep repeating the fault generation, you will most likely
push the amp to a fault 99. Some of the amplifiers we get here for service will
be in fault 99 but we are unable to find anything wrong with the amp. It's best to avoid shipping these amps around.
Once the amp is in Fault 99, it's really not hard to fix. You'll have to connect a computer to the amps serial port. Once the amp is connected to the computer, it helps us troubleshoot the amp (which we can usually do on the phone with you). In fact, sometimes we set up a link where we take control of your computer and do the fix over the phone using our computers at the office!
One more tip - If you need to move your amp to a new location, remove the transformer - no kidding. That transformer weighs about 35 LBS and, mounted to the chassis can cause numerous faults, not to mention bending the chassis if you have a hard landing with it installed. And, while you've got the amp open, look around! It's a thing of beauty. Clean out those dust bunnies about once a year.
73's Brad
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| Notes from Mike Adell, Director of Channel Sales.
 First of all, I'm studying for my license. Almost there...
Now, with the important stuff out of the way, a bit about the retail sales effort here at Alpha.
As you all know we are now represented by the 2 most successful and noteworthy resellers in the United States - HRO and AES. Just as we completed our newsletter last month, Radioworld came on board. To give you more information about this fine organization please visit their site. They have been in business close to 20 years, located in Toronto servicing all of Canada with a 3,000+ sq. ft. retail location and 13,000 sq ft of warehouse. Radioworld will also be our only Alpha Authorized In and Out of Warranty repair facility outside of the United States. Along with AES and HRO we are proud to have them represent us.
Business is growing again! Demand for all Alpha Amplifiers, the soon to be shipped 8406, Wattmeters and our Dummy Load has increased substantially in recent months. We are shipping the amps from stock, but the pickup in demand for the Wattmeters and Dummyload outstripped our expectations. We filled the backlog and had some on the shelf, but within a week or so, they were gone. Operations says that there are more on the way. Also, our resellers are carrying these units in stock, and it looks like they're selling through.
We attended hamfests in Huntsville and Boxboro that brought us immediate sales and very strong interest. Attendance was above expectations and people seemed to be in an uplifting frame of mind.
The following is our planned attendance at forthcoming shows:
-6m ENTHUSIAST EVENT, AUSTIN, 10/1-2
-PACIFICON, SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, 10/15-16
Come by, say hi. Almost all of our products can be delivered to you in less than 2 weeks. Imagine, order an 8410, 9500 or Wattmeter in Chicago this weekend and it could be waiting for you by the time you get home! Or better yet---we just may have a brand new one waiting for you to put in your car.
And by the way, we are most interested in selecting a very few of the right distributors or resellers in International markets. If any of you have recommendations, along with their contacts, please let me know at mikea@rfconcepts.com. We will mention your name to your contact AND we'll send you an official, personalized baseball style hat with your call letters.
Contests are around the corner. Do you have the power to win?
Mike
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Here's our new Legal Limit Alpha 8406, 6 meter, 4CX1500B based amplifier. September is the month. We're waiting for FCC approval. Gordon Hardman, W0RUN tells a bit about the new amp below. 
Here's the quote directly from the pages of QST magazine: "The Alpha 9500 is worthy of its place at the top of the Alpha product line. Once configured for your station, automatic tune up is effortless and nearly instantaneous. It will operate at 1500 W output for long periods with no apparent effort and is ready to serve in the most demanding amateur applications." - QST Magazine - October 2010
