[Amps] Alpha 87A

[Kurtis Burton]

Let me get your thoughts on something.  I called Alpha to get the sequence code to unlock the 10 meter band and the gentleman got on the line and he knew about anAlpha 87A that I got the other day by an earlier conversation and that it was basically a New Old Stock amplifier and he told me and really urged me to send the amp to them (Alpha) and let them do all the upgrades.   Now here is were it gets interesting, I asked him, 

"Well okay, if I do decide to send the amp...can you give me a ball park cost on what it would be to update?"  He said, "No we can't, you just have to get it here and let Brad (87A expert) go through it.  I insisted that I may consider sending it but I would really like to have a figure to budget the cost.  While on the phone he talked to the "expert" in the back (I could hear them in the background talking) and he came back on the phone with a $3,000.00 dollar figure. I was shocked!  I then asked?  "Can you send me an itemized list of upgrades you'll be performing on the New Old Stock Alpha 87A?"   Answer:  "No, if your amp really is that age (1991) and has never been back to us and according to our files we have no records of it ever coming back then it will need a lot of upgrades to get it to the Alpha recommended standards".  Then the gentleman suggest that I may just consider selling the 87A and get my money back and if I were really considering spending $3,000.00 for upgrades, then I needed to consider buying the new Alpha 9500, etc.

According to this gentleman at Alpha, without the upgrades this New Old Stock, never used Alpha 87A is a time bomb waiting to give me major problems.  I missing something here?

Jon
W4LWY