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write your own review of the Alpha 89.
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AA1LN
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Rating: 5/5
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Nov 21, 2001 11:15
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Best amp I've ever used
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I don't have anything negative to say of this model. I have had mine for over 4 years and never had a problem. It EASILY makes 1500w on all bands with 50w of drive. QSK is silent and smooth. No spurious byproducts, very clean output. It's built like a tank. If you don't mind the 10 seconds or so it takes to manually tune an amp, this is the best.
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W4ABW
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Rating: 3/5
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Nov 13, 2001 12:32
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Alpha 89, a good amp
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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My Alpha 89 is great now but I had a year of grief due to the fact that Alpha service was pitiful. I had a power supply problem and the guys at the old Alpha factory just said NDF.
No Defect Found.
After 4 returns to the factory, they finally changed out the power supply board and the rig has now played well for 3 years. It was in warranty when I had all the problems and those folks just did not want to honor the their warranty.
I got mine in Feb of 1994 at the price of $2995 so I got a better deal than you can get nowadays.
Alpha is the way to go but why they have to try and stiff you on the warranty is still a mystery to me.
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WB5IRI
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Rating: 5/5
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Feb 22, 2000 21:29
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One Great Amplifier -- Worth Every Penny!
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Time owned: unknown months
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I have to agree with the previous review. From the paucity of reviews here I suspect there aren't a lot of 89's out there, most Alpha buyers either going for the 87A or the 99, with relatively few taking the middle of the road approach. However, if you are looking for a great amp but 6 grand is just too much or you don't really NEED autotune, then you should give the 89 a careful look. It's built like a battleship -- every component is extra heavy duty. A measely 45 watts will drive mine to well over the legal limit output on any band, which means my exciter loafs along and never even gets more than warm. You don't even need to hook up the alc unless you just can't get your output down below about 80 watts or so. Hit it with too much RF, to the point where you might be over driving it into a tad of distortion (and lighting up your neighborhood in the process!), and it kicks the amp offline and tells you to clean up your act. The fan on my IC706 MKII G is noisier than the one on my Alpha 89 (OK, the 706's fan is reeaalllly noisy), and once it warms up it just sits there waiting for duty like a silent sentinel. So nice to be able to flick a switch and say "Can you hear me NOW?" There is no grunting and groaning from the transformer, no dimming of lights on the front panel, no clicking of relays -- just silent little green LEDs (all right, ONCE in awhile a red one, OK?) flicking to the right as the RF pours into the night.
I have to manually change antennas and I have to use a tuner anyway on some bands, so why do I need an autotune amp? The 89 is the same amplifier and does everything the 87A does except autotune, and it's $2000 less. Unless Alpha comes out with an amp that has the 89's power and reliability in a solid-state package, I think this well may be the last amp I'll ever buy.
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K4IQ
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Rating: 5/5
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Oct 5, 1999 08:10
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What? No reviews of the 89? Comparison with AL-150
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Time owned: unknown months
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Well then, here's one. Great amplifier. Sold a much-loved AL-1500 to help afford this one. The power levels are about the same, so here's a side-by-side. The 89 is much quieter than the 1500 at factory fan settings, which is about the minimum blower speed if you contest. The pin diode QSK has been flawless thus far; altho' I expect some repairs eventually, given the experience of others. The best words for this amp's operations are "smooth and quiet." I got the external fan which is a remarkable bargain at 40 bucks installed at purchase. The tuning dials are easy to preset for each band, and qsy takes only a few seconds, with no soft faults, provided I keep drive power at 40-50 watts. Alpha just does it right. Instead of a million screws and a cheap tin case, like the Ameritron, it has this solid heavy case that fits like the back of a Rolex watch. Hopefully, it won't have to be removed as often. The AL-1500, by the way, although a great performer, presented with these symptoms, which are evident of its less than stellar lineage: the bias circuit was mis-wired at the factory, which caused some non-linearity of the signal (this was missed by service techs when it returned to factory for next problem); the bandswitch sustained a burned contact which was confirmed by W8JI to be caused by a design flaw which was then repaired at the factory, no charge; and the blower fan developed a noisy bearing, which Ameritron let me replace, rather than do without the amp for a month or two, which took me several hours to disassemble and wriggle old blower out and new one in - bottom line I got new blower free. This is a potential problem area, as that part's failure at a key time, such as during a contest when you're under the phones, would render the 8877 dead in minutes.
Anyway, I'll report back here when I experience my first failure or evidence of such slipshod design and workmanship on the 89, but, knock on wood, it looks like you get what you pay for.
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