[SEDXC] Alpha Radio Products Announces...

Wed Sep 16 08:37:23 PDT 2009

Wow
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

-----Original Message-----
From: MAllphin at aol.com

Date: Tue, 15 Sep 2009 21:19:49 
To: <SEDXC at contesting.com>
Subject: [SEDXC] Alpha Radio Products Announces...

Again...great news ...
73,
Bob-K4UEE

Alpha  Radio Products Announces

Boulder, Colorado: September 15, 2009  

Dear Alpha Customer:

I have some exciting news about some  big changes at Alpha Radio Products. 
A newly formed company, RF Concepts, LLC,  has acquired all the assets of 
Alpha Radio Products. RF Concepts will  manufacture the world-class amplifiers 
and other products that, for more than 40  years, our community has come to 
appreciate. The 3CX1500A7 triode-based Alpha  9500 Amplifier, dual 4CX1000 
tetrode-based Alpha 8410 Amplifier, legal-limit  Model 2100 Dummy 
Load/Wattmeter combo, and line of 4500 Wattmeters will continue  to be handmade in our 
Boulder Colorado factory.

Here's the story about my  involvement with Alpha Radio Products and the 
new company, RF Concepts,  LLC:

I'm Michael Seedman, AA6DY. I was originally licensed in 1969 as  WN6FUE, 
about the time that ETO released their first linear amplifier, the ALPHA  
SEVENTY. I remember reading QST, CQ, and Ham Radio Magazine cover to cover. Do  
you remember the Alpha ad where they put a brick on the straight key to 
signify  "Full power, no limits"? I sure do - and ever since then I've wanted 
to own an  Alpha amplifier. During the last 40 years, my specific interests 
in Ham Radio  have varied. Sometimes I spent my time building receivers, 
sometimes building  transmitters, sometimes stringing antennas in the trees, and 
sometimes building  QRP rigs. I've even built a homebrew 4-1000A based 
Linear Amplifier. Recently  I've spent my spare time working DX. As my friend 
Jack Hudson, W9MU, says, "Life  is too short for QRP when you're collecting 
countries." So I set out to build a  QRO HF station. I ordered an HF rig, 
strung a couple of dipoles in the trees,  and went looking for an amplifier. Of 
course, not just any amplifier, it had to  be an Alpha. A few visits to eBay 
later I had a used Alpha 87A in my  shack.

What a difference a few watts make. It didn't take long to rack up  a 
couple hundred countries with my Alpha 87A loafing along at 1500 watts output.  
Soon the dipoles came down and the two-element Steppir went up. There's 
nothing  more exciting than a callback when you're trying to bust a pileup. I was 
so  impressed with my Alpha 87A that I called Alpha to purchase a new 9500. 
I was  disappointed to learn that I would not receive it for months.

Molly  Hardman, W0MOM, the president of Alpha Radio Products, explained 
that each amp  is handmade. Although she said she'd love to put Alpha 
amplifiers on the shelf,  she has had a difficult time financing the inventory 
necessary to do just that.  Hers was a just-in-time manufacturing environment, and 
she held enough inventory  to work on just a few orders. She shared some of 
her numbers with me. Together  we created a way to capitalize the company 
in order to put amplifiers in  inventory for immediate availability. 
Customers will no longer have to wait  weeks or months to add an Alpha product to 
their station.

At the  beginning of September 2009, the new company RF Concepts, LLC 
purchased all  Alpha Radio Products assets and hired the seasoned team necessary 
to build these  exceptional products. And, we've already put some changes in 
effect to make sure  we serve our customers even better than before. 
There's still a lot of work to  do, but we're very excited about the prospects.

Here's the lineup at the  new RF Concepts, LLC:

    *   Molly Hardman (W0MOM) will head up our sales effort as the new Vice 
 President of Sales. 
    *   Brad Focken (K0HM), and Glenn Pladsen (AE0Q) will continue their 
awesome  work on the front lines of engineering, service, and support.
    *   Gordon Hardman (W0RUN), the designer who, along with Brad Focken 
(K0HM),  engineered the award-winning Alpha 9500 and Alpha 8410, has joined 
the company  as Vice President of engineering to develop new Alpha-branded 
products. He's  got some great product ideas and is turning those ideas into 
reality.
    *   Steve Farkas (WA2NFR), a seasoned executive and very creative 
engineer,  has joined the company as president, responsible for overseeing and 
operating  RF Concepts, LLC. 

And here's what it means for our  customers:

Effective September 1, 2009, we've lowered pricing on all Alpha  products:

    *   The Alpha 9500 Amplifier will be reduced from  $10,150 to $7,950.
    *   The Alpha 8410 Amplifier will be reduced from  $5,895 to $4,995.
    *   The Alpha 2100 Dummy load with its integrated  wattmeter will be 
reduced from $1,950 to $1,495.
    *   The Alpha 4520 Wattmeter will be reduced from  $1,195 to $995, the 
Alpha 4510 Wattmeter will be reduced from $1,095 to $945;  its 
front-panel-less computer-connected cousins, the Alpha 4505 and 4515, will  be reduced to 
$545 and $595 respectively.

· All customers  who have orders pending with Alpha Radio Products will 
receive their new Alpha  amplifiers from RF Concepts at the new, lower price. 
Any deposits made at Alpha  Radio Products will be applied as discounts to 
your RF Concepts invoice. For  instance, if you ordered an Alpha 9500 at 
$10,150 and sent Alpha Radio Products  a $5,000 deposit, RF Concepts will deliver 
your Alpha 9500 for $7,950 - $5,000 =  $2,950, plus any applicable shipping 
and taxes. 

· If you're the original  owner who received an Alpha amplifier from the 
factory during the period between  March 1, 2009 and August 31, 2009, RF 
Concepts will give you a credit equal to  the difference between your original 
purchase price and our new price. This  effectively retroactively reduces the 
price you paid for the amp you've already  received to match our new, lower 
price. This non-transferrable credit can be  applied toward any RF Concepts 
product (including any Alpha-branded product),  through August 31, 2010. Use 
it today to buy anything in our product line, or  save it and use it later 
on one of our upcoming products. Please understand that  the credit can be 
redeemed only at RF Concepts and has no cash value. It's our  way of saying 
thanks for being an Alpha Radio Products customer.

We will  focus on shipping our backlog of Alpha amplifiers and building 
sufficient  product to ship from stock. No more waiting for delivery while your 
amp is being  built. When you're ready to place an Alpha amp at your 
operating position, give  us a call.

We will continue to operate from the existing Boulder,  Colorado factory, 
use the same phone number and retain the  www.alpharadioproducts.com URL 
along with the new www.rfconcepts.com URL. We  will honor our existing customer 
commitments, including warranties, customer and  technical support, and 
repairs, and keep our extensive parts inventories to  support the more than 
10,000 Alpha amplifiers in the market.

Please visit  us online, drop us a note, call us, or stop by our booth at 
one of the many  Amateur Radio conventions and Hamfests we'll be attending 
this year. 

We  are grateful that you have chosen Alpha Radio Products, and look 
forward to  serving you in the future.

73's
Michael Seedman,  AA6DY
Chairman
RF Concepts,  LLC

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