A closeup on the antenna switch inside the 4040 4kW Autotuner
Here's a picture of the band switch. It's a 5 position switch that can handle 10,000 volts at 20 amps. As it selects the antenna of choice, it shorts the 4 other antennas to ground.
It's made of .250 glass epoxy board with specially designed contacts, and a stepper motor that positions the arm smack over the correct contact.
We'll be using this to build a remote antenna switch, and it will also be for sale as a stand alone part by itself for use by enterprising builders.
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The remote 9500 application is finished! 9500 owners, download the program and give it a try!
On our website, go to the
under the DOWNLOADS tab at the top of the
main page.
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We have a new Dummy Load!
Introducing the A2000
$795-
Introductory Price
Preorders will be accepted soon! 
20,000 Watts for 10 seconds! - pretty impressed? Well, how about 2,000 watts until the cows come home?
Not much electronics. Just some air cooled railroad resistors and a matching network in a box with two heavy duty fans.
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Product Availability?
IN STOCK AGAIN!
9500's - in stock
8410's - in stock
8406 - in stock
Specific product availability is listed on the front page of the website, as is turnaround times for our repair department.
And, as always, the most up to date information on the happenings at the company are listed there too. Check it out at:
The Alpha Website
Thanks for being so committed to a great brand, a hard working group of people, and our great hobby.
Call us if we can help you:
303-473-9232
The folks at Alpha:
Steve, WA2NFR
Michael, AA6DY
Glenn, AEØQ
Brad, KØHM
Carey, KXØR
Molly, WØMOM
Gordon, WØRUN
Kathy, KB2HDT
Tom, W2CO
Petar
Pam
Patricia
Carol
Mary
Mike Adell
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Letter from the President, Steve Farkas, WA2NFR
Work, work, work, work, work.
Here's an update on the new A4040 Autotuner, and along with the tuner, we're releasing two new products in the next couple of months.
We're late, but not terribly late...
I've been an engineer for my entire professional life, and I've been a Ham and hobbyist from childhood. There's not been a day in my life that I didn't think about technology and electronics. It continues to amaze me that, even with all this experience, the hardest thing is to estimate the time it takes to produce a product. Michael and I sat down a year ago, decided to build the best tuner ever, and started sketching.
We ended up with a beautiful design. One we think you'll appreciate. There are few commercially available parts for products like this, and the ones that are available were just too darn expensive. So, we set out to design many of the parts that make up the 4040.
I'm still spending most of my time on Alpha's new A4040 Autotuner, as are 5 other people, along with the normal support by the employees at Alpha. We've got a mechanical engineer, a Linux programmer, a user interface designer, a user interface programmer, system programmer, and of course me. It's amazing that, even with the combined experience level of well over 100 years, we all underestimated the time of almost every aspect of the design process. Luckily we padded the schedule with what we thought was enough 'extra' (ha) time to deliver around now, but we are late.
The final metal is done, the circuit boards are working, the coupler is complete, the UI (user interface) is done, the tuning algorithm is complete, and we're working at integrating all this work so that when called upon to do operate, it checks the antenna, solves the matching problem, spins the capacitors and inductor, and sends the data to the display so you can see it on a Smith Chart or VSWR display. We've posted a new tab on the front page of the website called "4040 update". It's got 4 pages of pictures and information about the status of the project.
I'm going to say that we get this to the testers in May, and start really shipping in June. It will take us at least 4 months to build all the units we have on backlog.
So, if you're going to want one of these tuners, get on the list. Orders placed today may not ship until September. And, as soon as we start shipping, we'll only accept orders with a deposit to get in the queue.
Over the last couple years, I've met some of the nicest hams. It's a wonderful hobby, isn't it? Steve, WA2NFR |
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Letter from the Vice President of Sales, Molly Hardman, WØMOM
First, the weather report for the Rocky Mountains:
As has become the custom, I like to start with a weather report (I am a ham, after all). Well spring certainly is breaking out here in the Rocky Mountains - I haven't written about my wonderful view to the west for a few months now, but I can tell you that although there was snow in the mountains just a few days ago, it is also retreating quite quickly. We are seeing a few green leaves on the trees across the street and the meadow larks have returned to Colorado - time to start thinking about planting again.
Time for a vacation! Durban on the East Coast of South Africa for Gordon and me. I'm going to visit my mother, ZS5YO, for her 90th birthday!
We have been really busy in the past few months building amps and doing our best to catch up on our backlog. The good news is that we are getting very close to current on the 9500 and both the Alpha 8410 and Alpha 8406 amplifiers are in stock ready to ship within a day of you placing your order. I am certainly looking forward to a lot of good 6 m activity in the upcoming months - I still need to log my first non-US 6 m contact, so I will be looking to have a QSO with ZF1EJ who recently installed an 8406 and anyone else who hears me. Talking of a QSO, I am also hoping to be able to work some of you as ZS5/WØMOM in the next few weeks as we set up a station for ZS5YO again just outside of Durban on the east coast of South Africa.
Say hello to Ken, NØQO. He's taking over the front office for the 3 weeks I'm out of town.
I'd like to introduce you all to Ken, NØQO, who is working in the front office with Patricia and myself on customer support and who will be your friendly sales and support "go-to-guy" whilst I am setting up that ZS5 station for the next 3 weeks. Ken is very active on HF and many of you have likely spoken to him on the air - now you get a chance for a phone QSO, hi, hi.
The Alpha 4040 Tuner Update.
You will read elsewhere in the newsletter about the progress we are making on getting to the backlog of tuners - it is making for a busy and exciting time here at the factory as we see the orders for the components for the tuners come in house and as we get ready to start shipping units out next month. For many of you Dayton this year will be the first opportunity to see the tuner in person - we will be running amplifiers in our booth as per usual and you will have a chance to see an Alpha amplifier, tuner, dummyload and wattmeter all in sequence and operating. Don't forget that we have recently lowered the price on our wattmeters and also remember that we still offer our 502525 plan - or 60 days as cash plan - to customers purchasing a new amplifier.
Introducing the new Alpha 2050 Dummy Load.
No doubt you've seen that we've removed the Alpha 2100 from the website. It was becoming more difficult to get parts for that great dummy load and so we decided to replace it with a more manufacture-able, simpler and more cost-effective design.
FREE T-Shirts for Dayton Attendees. And, a free gift when you come by the booth to see the new Alpha Dreamtuner 4040 in action.
Or, you can buy one of each in a set for $5, plus $3 shipping and handling.
We're printing two this year, and if you'd like to wear them during your walk around dayton, send me a note and I'll get you one of EACH!
1. Front: YOU'VE NEVER SEEN A TUNER LIKE THIS
Back: Alpha Amplifiers Logo
2. Front: I OWN AN ALPHA, ASK ME!
Back: Alpha Amplifiers Logo
If you're going to be at the Dayton Hamvention this year, and you'll wear a t-shirt, Get on the website and order the PRO-022-Dayton Free combo. We'll send you an email which can be redeemed at our booth at the Hamvention, AND you'll get a second (third?) FREE GIFT for doing some advertising for us!
If you'd like to just buy the pair of T's, order PRO-022-Purchase for $5, plus $3.00 for shipping and handling and we'll send the pair as soon as we get them back from the printer.
If any of you are attending Dayton and would like to spend a short shift in our booth and earn an embroidered Alpha golf shirt for your time and trouble, please contact me and let me know of your plans so that we can fit you in to our schedule.
I hope to see many of you at Visalia in April and even more of you at Dayton in May.
73,
Molly, WØMOM and Mike
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Letter from Gordon Hardman, WØRUN
Notes on Alpha 9500 Remote Operation
The Alpha 9500 is designed for remote operation, just like its predecessor the 87A. Remote control of the amplifier is accomplished using either the RS232 serial port or the USB port at the rear of the amplifier. You can use one or the other, but not both simultaneously. In a previous article I discussed how the USB port maps into a "virtual" COM port (VCP) on a Windows PC- so at that point the two ports (serial and USB) appear identical as far as any software application is concerned. If you would like to know more about how the VCP works and how to set it up, please look back to that article.
The interface between the amplifier and the PC uses only human-readable ASCII characters. This allows the use of several different programs to control it. It is possible to do some limited monitoring and control using only a serial program such as Hyperterm for Windows. In fact, if you have had a remote interface session where Molly has remotely logged on to your PC to diagnose a problem or help set up the amplifier for you, this is one of the ways we usually start out. It also allows Apple users to interact with the 9500.
But all and all, it is not very a convenient interface for general use. We provide an application for doing this with a graphical user interface on a PC. The original version of this application left a bit to be desired in terms of moving windows around and getting the desktop to look the way you wanted. The latest version has been significantly improved in terms of look, stability and features.
The application controls the amplifier by sending it a string of characters which the amplifier interprets as a button push. By this means, any button that you can push from the front panel can be "pushed" remotely. The amplifier in return sends strings back to the PC where the application breaks them apart and turns them into properly formatted "engineering units" that can be displayed on the simulated front panel. Every internal parameter in the amplifier can be brought out by one or more of these strings.
As soon as the amplifier is plugged in to the ac mains, a small auxiliary power supply comes to life and powers the internal microprocessors. So even if the amplifier front panel is completely dark, the internal circuitry is alive, and the USB and RS232 ports are active. There is no need to push any buttons or for any operator intervention- the amplifier is ready to be controlled remotely.
In some cases, especially where there is an antenna fairly close to the shack, there have been instances of enough RF getting into the USB cabling to interfere with communications between the amplifier and PC. These problems can be solved by putting one or more clamp-on EMI control ferrites. If you use a powered USB hub between the amp and PC, you might want to put an EMI bead on its power cord as well.
Support for the 9500 has been incorporated into the popular DDUTIL used with Flex radios. This allows the application to tell the amplifier to change band before there is any RF. This can speed up the band change process. If you are a third party developer, and are interested in adding 9500 support, give us a call.
The PC app is available in the download section of the RF Concepts web site at: RF Concepts Download table
73, Gordon, WØRUN
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| Notes from Kathy Foster-Patton, Director of Operations, KB2HDT
I need a new bumper sticker: So many amps, so little time.
I am so busy right now that I barely have time to write anything. Carey Fuller (KXØR) and I are awash in ordering parts, prototype boards, sheet metal, and various bits and pieces for the three new products that are about to hatch out of our development team.
Many mornings we arrive at work to find updates in the latest emails that Steve Farkas has sent us at 2:00 A.M. Motivation is high here to release our first new products in quite a while!
The new tuner is our most challenging assignment, with a plethora of parts and technical specs to put into order for purchase. We also are working on a new Dummy Load and a new Wattmeter. Each will be built to the quality specifications for which our company is known. It is a fun and challenging time here at the factory.
More next month. Right now, I've got to get back to work.
Kathy
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Our April Promotion? Five bucks buys TWO Alpha Amplifier coffee mugs! They're in stock and shipping the day you order.
 Well, not quite five bucks. We add $3 for shipping and handling, for a total of $8.00
Who couldn't use a couple of great mugs in the shack?
To get this price, you have to order the mugs online - on our website. No call-ins, no emails, one set of two per Call Sign. Order number PRO-023.
Our Price: $5.00
List Price: $20.00
S & H:$3.00
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And, as always, you can get a FREE Alpha Baseball cap with your Call Sign embroidered on the back for posting a review on eHam.net
 Go to eham.net and post a review on any of our Amplifiers, send us a note through the "CONTACT US" tab on the front of the website and we'll send you an embroidered Baseball Cap. Thousands of people have these caps!
List Price: $15.00
Our Price: ZERO
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