|
New to Ham Radio?
My Profile
Community
Articles
Forums
News
Reviews
Friends Remembered
Speak Out
Strays
Survey Question
Operating
Contesting
DX Cluster Spots
Propagation
Resources
Calendar
Classifieds
Ham Exams
Ham Links
List Archives
News Articles
Product Reviews
QSL Managers
Site Info
eHam Help (FAQ)
Support the site
The eHam Team
Advertising Info
Vision Statement
About eHam.net
|
| Reviews Summary for Alpha 87A |
|
You can
write your own review of the Alpha 87A.
|
VA6SZ
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Dec 19, 2007 12:08
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
Wonderful!
|
Time owned: more than 12 months
|
Incredible power with hardly any issues. Mine has been "max-ed" out on a bird watt meter at over 2950 watts pep and 1785 watts key-down. It works and works and works....
The protection circuitry does it's job when things get "dicey" on the antenna side. I have yet to trip the protection circuitry with "excessive" drive from an exciter. (Although the radios that I have used to drive it with are only of the 100 watt class.)
The only issue I had with mine was when it was brand new. The "pads" on the band-switch disc where slightly off for 20 meters. And thus, it would not work on 20 meters. It was shipped back to Colorado and returned to me about 10 days later with the shipping charges covered.
Not one complaint! THE amplifier to buy (if you can afford it).
|
|
G0HWC
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Dec 19, 2007 10:04
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
Excellent !!!
|
Time owned: 0 to 3 months
|
I got my amp 2nd hand as dead. Molly and the Tech guy at Alpha were most helpfull in sorting out the problems. I also orderd the AlphaMax upgrade, took 20 mins to fit and works well. I am well happy with the amp, I think it will out live me!!
By far the BEST amp I have ever had.
Just found a Yahoo user group Alpha87a
Here is the link
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Alpha87a/
Paul G0HWC www.g0hwc.com
|
|
VE2DC
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Sep 7, 2007 09:06
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
Nice Amp! Update...
|
Time owned: more than 12 months
|
|
Actually a 4.5. Not perfect but very good. replaces my old Ten-Tec Titan. From an RF point of view, it puts out less RF than the TT, but puts out 1.5KW without strain. It is well protected (just as well with a new pair of tubes costing $1300) though *very* occasionally it will fault for no apparent reason... maybe something not-quite-right with my tubes. (Update - turned out to be a loose PL259 on the tower relay box) Transformer hums on 24MHz, and apparently will self-destruct if operated continuously in the "Lo" position. (So why the heck is the switch there!!!) The DAS seems to work very well, but you need to pre-tune on 10 as the stepper is a bit coarse and it can settle on a less than optimum tuning. Overall, I like it and would recommend it.
|
|
N5GE
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Jun 30, 2007 12:10
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
Excellent High Powered Amplifier
|
Time owned: more than 12 months
|
I bought my Alpha 87A in 1998. During the time I have owned it, I had to ship it back for warranty work one time (A bad Tube). It has performed flawlessly for ten years now and still has the same output with the same amount of drive required when it was new.
The QSK is perfect.
In 1999 I added the Remote control and auto-tune mods to the amp. It is a truly hands off amplifier now. I rarely even touch it except to dust it.
I Owned two Ameritron Amps before acquiring the 87A and although they both performed well, they don't even come close to the Alpha 87A. And after considering the cost of the two Ameritrons, the price of the Alpha 87A was justified. The only amplifier I have owned that came close to the 87A was my Drake L4B which I acquired in the late 70's.
If I ever feel the need to acquire another Amp it will be whichever Alpha is currently the top of the Alpha line. If YOU want the best bang for the buck in HF amplifiers, get an Alpha. You can't go wrong.
Tom, N5GE
|
|
N4KAS
|
Rating: 5/5
|
May 9, 2007 17:23
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
awesome
|
Time owned: more than 12 months
|
Best amp I've ever owned. Had this one for about 7 years, never had a problem. Its so automatic its like having a 1.5kw transceiver. I've had problems with both ameritrons. The Alpha is pricey, but extremely well built.
73
n4kas
|
|
KP4E
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Nov 1, 2006 09:13
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
The best amp I have had in 45 years af ham radio.
|
Time owned: more than 12 months
|
Last year have been working flawless. The automatic tunning is fantastic! No problems . Use it all the time , almost daily. Recomendations with no regrets.
Power as stated. Drive power less than 30W.
There is no comparison with any other automatic amplifier in the market!
|
|
W4ZW
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Jun 21, 2006 20:27
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
Simply Superb
|
Time owned: more than 12 months
|
|
I've had my ALPHA for almost 11 years now and it still works great. Only one trip back to Alpha for a repair in all these years. Quiet, potent, and fool proof. It's simply superb!
|
|
N6AJR
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Apr 29, 2006 18:37
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
still the best
|
Time owned: 6 to 12 months
|
I have used it for 6 or 7 montths now and I like it even more. it is the best amp I have ever owned, ( out of als 500, als600, la1000nt, sbe's, clipperton l's, ameritron 811 and 811 h's, and more.
I wish I had bought this one first, I would never have needed any thing else,, they are that good.
|
|
K9XK
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Feb 26, 2006 12:01
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
The King*
|
Time owned: 0 to 3 months
|
* of legal limit amplifiers
Of course there is a growing acceptance of the notion that it is okay to buy and use 5kw + amps. Even Alpha has text on their web site about one their high-powered wattmeters that snickers about breaking the rules. But that is just a sign of the times and coincides with other hip ideas such as that everyone with a pulse should now be upgraded to Extra, etc.
As for the 87A, it does its thing quite impressively. I think the blower is actually quite quiet. It is a very efficient design versus the brute force muffin fans used on amps like the Emtron DX-2sp and IC-PW1, which are both sort of loud. I have a 91B and it is also quiet. ETO/Alpha did a good job here. (both of my Alpha amps are actually ETO vintage)
The amp does moan and groan in a way that took a little getting used to, because my other no-tune amp (PW1) hardly made any noise at all. Maybe the fan noise masked it.
The 87A is a "pretty" amp that has almost a high-end, military look. It is extremely clean. The LEDs are neat but I still have issues with the low resolution of LEDs in some applications, and the TUNE meter on the 87A is a great example. I would hate to have to rely on this to get a good initial tune, because using the stepper motor switches takes more time than with knobs and you end up stepping 20 steps just to see that you're going in the wrong direction. Thank God for AlphaMax, which you know will do any further tweaking for you and pretty much eliminates the need to do anything other than a one-time pre-tune. Otherwise, I'd hook up a wattmeter to do final tuning. And then pray that the plate dipped along with the power peak since the low-resolution TUNE meter would also be used to check for a proper dip.
The only other little nit I have about this wonderful amp is that while it can handle mismatches of up to 3:1 in theory, it is touchy and does not like much reflected power. Even though I don't push it beyond 1500w, I sometimes get a fault if I move from a portion of the band where my VSWR goes up from, say, 1.5:1 to 1.8:1. I have to reduce the drive a little bit and cycle the switch. That is a little less "battleship-like" than I would like but it is only a minor annoyance.
|
|
N6AJR
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Dec 30, 2005 21:40
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
its a keeper
|
Time owned: 0 to 3 months
|
|
I love it, it is invisible in operation. turn on the amp, wait 3 minutse, turn on the rig set power to 40 or 50 watts out, put amp in operate and talk, or key, thats it, change bands, it follows, better than a AT-500 with a 2-kl, it makes a qsk ssb rig for me. I use it with the orion on vox and talk naturally, no clicking relays, quiet, full power, great rig..
|
|
If you have any questions, problems, or suggestions about Reviews,
please email your Reviews Manager.
|
|
|
|
|
