I owned a 9500 which blew up 3 times. Sold it after factory repair. Shipping
and Alpha price drops caused me to lose about $4000 on that thing.
I now have a SPE Expert 2K-FA, bought from Rome at less $ than 9500, which
performs WITH built in antenna tuner flawlessly. The interior ant tuner and
SIX output sockets makes it beat price of similar equipped 9500 (without $4000
tuner) or the Elecraft amplifier with outboard ant tuner.
That amp W6WRT is waiting for a garage fellow to invent is already available
from SPE in Rome (that's Rome, Italy).
The mark up sold in usa is stiff. Otherwise, the Expert 2 or 1.3 are the clear
winners on the market today.
73, Charly
P.S., rumor has it that the 2 phase Chinese amp is no longer made. I am a
driven amplifier shopper.
> From: w9ac@arrl.net
> To: amps@contesting.com
> Date: Tue, 15 Sep 2015 11:30:05 -0400
> Subject: Re: [Amps] Alpha 9500 Repair
>
> Bill,
>
> The two components mentioned are sourced up through the +40V supply. So,
> I'm not at all surprised an 8877 arc or K-to-grid short took out the supply.
>
>
> Pricing of the SPE 2K-FA is a bit more than the 9500 and looks like a good
> alternative. My only reservation about commercially-available SS amps is
> that cooling is still relatively inefficient -- and loud in high duty-cycle
> modes. Having a LAN-enabled remote head would be a nice way to deal with
> the noise issue.
>
> I own the SPE 1K-FA and if the 2K-FA's fault protection scheme is similar,
> the PA and power supply are very well protected from a number of fault
> conditions.
>
> Paul, W9AC
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Amps [mailto:amps-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Bill Turner
> Sent: Tuesday, September 15, 2015 11:10 AM
> To: Amps group <amps@contesting.com>
> Subject: Re: [Amps] Alpha 9500 Repair
>
> ------------ ORIGINAL MESSAGE ------------(may be snipped)
>
> On Mon, 14 Sep 2015 23:57:41 -0700, you wrote:
>
> > Aside from that, they really should have designed it, such that
> >components don't blow up with a simple cathode to grid short, int or
> >hard fault.
> >
> >Jim VE7RF
>
> REPLY:
>
> Agreed. Arc protection is a weak point.
>
> I have owned two 9500's. The first one, about four years ago, arced when it
> was a few months old and blew out the 40 volt supply. The factory repaired
> it under warranty and even paid for shipping both ways. My second one, a
> used one less than a year old, has been flawless so far, but I see the
> factory no longer pays shipping if it fails under warranty.
>
> I'm hoping Alpha cones out with a brick-on-the-key solid state amp.
> Done right at the right price, that would be a world beater. A pair of
> BLF188XR's costs about a third of an Eimac 8877 and is rated at 2800 watts
> PEP. Going with four of them to be conservative would be my suggestion and
> still costs less than an 8877. No warm up, no tuning but does need an
> antenna tuner.
>
> If Alpha is not interested, here's an opportunity for an entrepreneur to
> start a new world class company in their garage. The technology is already
> known, it just takes someone to put it to work.
>
> 73, Bill W6WRT
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