November as most of you know was a tough month here - the aftermath of our move took a lot more time and effort than any of us realized.  The good news is that we're very well settled now, our repair backlog is going down and our new amplifier backlog is also going down.  By the middle of January we'll be closer to a ship in 2 weeks situation.  My new view continues to impress and inspire me, however I have been sternly counseled to not write about the weather this month, hi, hi!

We have a new link on our website - for information about all things Alpha go to www.asktheham.com.  We expect to add commentary and tech support gems to the site as the days progress and we also expect you to post and ask and answer questions as well.  If you find broken or missing links or missing information, please let us know by filling out the Contact Us form on our website.  We want to build a complete knowledge base for all Alpha products.

That said, I want spend a few paragraphs this month on setting up your 9500 amplifier to best utilize the multiple memory locations available to you on each band.  The Alpha 9500 has 3 sets of memories, Default, User 1 and User 2.  Each memory is divided up into 5 segments that are evenly spread across the band - the manual lists the center frequency for each segment.  For example on 10 m the center frequencies are 28.2, 28.6, 29.0, 29.4 and 29.8.  This means that any time you key the amp between 28.0 and 28.4 it will jump to segment 1, 28.4 to 28.8 will be segment 2 and so on.  At the factory we program your amplifier so that the tune and load capacitor settings at the center of each segment are correct for a 50 ohm load and these values are saved into the segment memories.  Anytime you are operating into less than approximately a 1.5:1 SWR at full legal limit, the default settings will work well with no adjustments needed.  If you are operating at a lower power level or into a higher SWR, then the amplifier gain and efficiency will improve if the unit is retuned.  Additionally, on some bands in particular, it would be useful to be able to rearrange the band segment boundaries. 

The 80 and 75 m bands provide a great example.   Most of us don't have better than 1.5:1 SWR from 3.5 all the way up to 4.0 MHz.  A good way to go about setting up this band is to choose the User 1 memory segments to hold the correct tune and load settings for the lower portion of the band and the User 2 memory segments to hold the settings for the top of the band.  The secret to achieving this is that you need to change the center frequencies of the segments.  In the User 1 memories you will move the segment boundaries down and in the User 2 memories you will move them up.  The starting center frequencies for each segment are 3.55, 3.65, 3.75, 3.85 and 3.95, respectively.  You may want to set the User 1 segments to be centered on 3.52, 3.56, 3.6, 3.64 and 3.7 and the User 2 segments to be centered on 3.75, 3.8, 3.85, 3.9, and 3.95.  There are only 2 rules to observe: firstly, the center frequencies must increase monotonically from segment 1 up to segment 5 and secondly, the center frequencies can be no closer to each other than 5 kHz.  For the User 1 memories it will be easiest to start at the bottom - this is easily seen because if you key the amp on 3.7, the amp will jump to segment 3 - not where you want to be. 

Push the User 1 button and then key the amp on 3.52, tune the amp (either with the Auto button or manually) to get the max output on that frequency.  Then push the SAVE button, whilst the amplifier is keyed and producing power.  This moves the center point of segment 1 down from 3.55 to 3.52 - it also moves the top edge of segment 1 down to 3.585, which is half way between 3.65 and 3.52.  As you can see from this the frequency that we want to be the center of segment 2 is still located within the boundaries of segment 1, so it will be a two step process to program that segment.  First key the amp on 3.59 and note that the amp jumps to segment 2, then push save whilst the amp is keyed and producing power.  Right after that key the amp on 3.56, confirm that this frequency now lies in segment 2 and then set the tune and load capacitors and push SAVE whilst the amp is keyed and producing power.  You now have the center frequency of segment 1 saved as 3.52 and the center frequency of segment 2 saved as 3.56.  The boundary between segment 2 and 3 has also moved to 3.655 which is half way between 3.56 and the original center of segment 3, i.e. 3.75.  Therefore, in order to program 3.6 as the center of segment 3, you will first need to move the center frequency of that segment down to 3.66 and then again down to 3.62 at which point 3.6 will now lie within the boundaries of segment 3 and the value can be saved as the center frequency of that segment.  You will then move on to program the center of segment 4 and segment 5.  Following this - move to the User 2 memories and here you will want to start at the top segment - fortunately, 3.95 is already the center of segment 5, so you will start with keying the amp on 3.9 and saving that to be the center of segment 4.

Comments, questions - post them in the forum on www.asktheham.com .  Wishing all of you all the best for the festive and holiday season - I'm looking forward to getting out on the road starting at Frosfest in early February and followed by the Orlando Hamcation.  Please stop by to say hello!

73,

Molly, WØMOM