|
New to Ham Radio?
My Profile
Community
Articles
Forums
News
Reviews
Friends Remembered
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 8410 |
|
Reviews: 61
|
Average rating: 5.0/5
|
MSRP: $5395
|
Description: The Alpha 8410 utilizes an enhanced version of the bombproof
RF deck, found in the Alpha 99 and Alpha 8100. On the 8410’s
control board you’ll find a microprocessor that allows us to
normalize amplification performance, calibrate the power and
gain metering for each specific band, and increase
reliability and durability. All of these functions aggregate
into a single greater benefit for the user, ease of tuning.
The 8410 comes standard with USB and serial ports for remote
monitoring and performance data logging. The power supply
stack found in the 8410 has been designed for maximum
durability and reliability, while allowing for extremely
easy voltage tap changes.
This amplifer is handcrafted, designed, and built in
Boulder, Colorado, USA, comes with a 4-year warranty.
Tubes: 2x 4CX1000A Tetrodes
|
|
Product is in production.
|
|
More info: http://www.rfconcepts.com
|
|
Email Subscription
You are not subscribed to this review.
Subscribe!
My Subscriptions
Subscriptions Help
|
You can
write your own review of the Alpha 8410.
|
AC6DD
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Jan 17, 2012 19:44
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
Nice Amplifier
|
Time owned: 6 to 12 months
|
The Amp is pretty well built, quite easy to tune and has good protection features.
The other Amps I currently own are: SB200, SB220 (Buried somewhere in the garage), Acom 2000a, Intech COM1000 (SS).
Since the other Amps I currently use are auto tune or Solid State Amps I was quite surprised how easy tuning the 8410 was. It was almost as easy as my old SB200. The protection scheme seems to work very well, and I found it going off quite a bit when I first started using the amp. I would forget that I needed to actually change things on the front panel when changing bands on the radio.
In my opinion there are really only a few minor areas for improvement:
The manual needs to be revised. I go through a multitude of procedures of various complexity at my work and can tell the difference a good writer makes. The manual can be made better.
The connectors on the back are not labeled. There is a white sticker on the back panel describing the connections. I like to see each connector identified. This might not matter much for someone who will set up the amp and leave it hooked up forever, but I do a fair amount of portable operating and Contesting. I made wiring mistakes a few times - little things help.
I read some discussion online about the blower used in the amplifier. To me it seemed fine, maybe just a bit louder than the Acom 2000 blower. I never had it go high speed. At 24" I measured 48 dB, comparded to the Acom at 44 dB, barely noticable. The twin fans in the COM1000 are very much louder.
The item that bugs me a bit is the RF switching noise . Some say it is quiet, some loud. To me it is relatively loud. When the stock Vacuum relay in my Acom went bad I replaced it with a silicon encased vacuum relay, which is very quiet, so I can't compare.
I would like to see some better quality knobs used, maybe as an option.
A funny thing happened today. I was changing some switching at my station and testing on 20m CW with the 8410 when a W7 comes back with "Big Signal".
Thank you for the nice Amplifier.
|
|
W3BJ
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Dec 31, 2011 13:10
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
Great product and support
|
Time owned: 6 to 12 months
|
|
I have now had my 8410 for 6 months and can say it has performed flawless. If you are not tuned up or some function isnt right, she doesnt key up, and the fault light tells you some thing isnt right. I would not hesitate to purchase from RF Concepts one minute. The telephone support is great and the quality of workmanship is just as good. These amps are expensive, but you get what you pay for most of the time. These amps should last a lifetime with any care at all.
|
|
K4ELO
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Dec 30, 2011 17:13
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
Super Amp
|
Time owned: 0 to 3 months
|
No glitches here. Amp runs perfect. The only time it behaves strangely is when I don't have the band switch set in the correct position. Then it doesn't blow up, it just won't tune and the fault led comes on. Bullet proof and indestructible are the words that come to mind. It's built so strong I just don't have to worry about it.
The only time I could get the fan speed above low was running it at 1.5kw for extended times into a dummy load to check the tuning settings. It never goes above low in normal ssb qsos at full legal power.
My last amp was solid state because I remember how touchy it was to tune my last tube amp. Not so with this one. A few seconds and you are good to go.
My regular net contacts all tell me my signal sounds cleaner/clearer now than it did on the ss amp. Nothing but great reports. I love this amp and it will be my last one.
Thanks to the folks at Alpha for building a great product and to Molly for her dedication to customer support. I couldn't be happier.
They didn't ship the brick and the key with the amp, but I guess I could find them somewhere.
73
Wayne
K4ELO
|
|
W8JWN
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Dec 21, 2011 13:28
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
Excellent Amp and Customer Support
|
Time owned: 0 to 3 months
|
I traded my Alpha 99 for the 8410. I had a control board glitch but Molly helped me correct the issue. Telephone and e-mail support is superb!
The 8410 handles high SWR much better than the 99. As I get older, senior moments seem to appear more often: wrong antenna selection, wrong band, external tuner left in, etc. The amp doesn't go to FAULT for these increases in SWR.
RTTY is my favorite mode and the 8410 stays cool with the optional fan installed. I have no fear operating at the maximum legal limit.
RF Concepts has built an excellent amp.
|
|
K8EJ
|
Rating: 4/5
|
Nov 19, 2011 06:49
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
FB Amp
|
Time owned: 0 to 3 months
|
|
After a couple of minor glitches quickly resolved by Tech Support the amplifier has been flawless. The abundance of plate dissipation is good to have when operating RTTY. A smooth running amp with great resetability for quick band changes. The current price is $5395, not $4995.
|
|
KV7K
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Nov 18, 2011 13:12
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
Fantastic powerhouse
|
Time owned: 6 to 12 months
|
This is one super amplifier. Typical Alpha ruggedness. Operation is very smooth, with excellent protective circuits. Lots of headroom and won't let you down in the heat of the pileups.
Have had many amps over the years and this is the best.
|
|
AE9K
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Nov 16, 2011 17:23
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
Excellent amp
|
Time owned: 3 to 6 months
|
I acquired my 8410 very lightly used and have grown quite fond of it in the five months I've had it.
The quality of construction is excellent. It's not only solid but it's obviously designed to be serviced. I've never seen a piece of gear with so many test gear hook-up points on the circuit boards (I counted 56).
I had read many guides to tuning/loading a tube-based amp before acquiring the 8410 and was ready for a lot of tweaking. To my surprise, I can tune up at 500W or 1.5 kW and usually not need to tweak in between. I expected to 'over couple' at 1.5 kW and back off the loading gradually with lower power as many of the presumably triode-based tuning guides recommended. So far that hasn't been necessary. I should point out that I'm tuning for max linearity by keeping the gain right in the middle of the range (30) and not tuning for max gain/smoke.
I've done my share of soft-faulting the amp - usually when changing bands and going to pre-determined tune/load settings that are close but not quite right. The fault protections are pretty comprehensive and coupled with tuning that isn't finicky, it's hard to do anything that would damage the thing.
I experienced two problems and got both resolved satisfactorily. A crimp connector for the tube heater supply line burned. I opened a case online and Molly jumped on it within 20 minutes. She gave me the option of sending it in or fixing it myself. I opted to fix that myself once she confirmed doing so didn't void the warranty. I also had a problem with the tube deck thermal sensor not communicating correctly with the PIC controller. This prevented the amp from advancing the blower speed in relation to tube deck temperature. I sent the amp in and they turned it around in eleven days. The tube deck board was replaced, several unrelated components were upgraded and the firmware was updated (to a version not yet published on the web site) and my fix for the tube heater line was re-done to factory specs. Great job. Oh, and they shipped it back double-boxed in new double-wall cartons (inner box and outer box with foam spacers) and didn't charge me for the new cartons.
Cons -
Two components make more noise than anticipated - the blower and the vacuum T/R relay. The blower is louder than I would expect for the volume of air it moves through the tube chimneys. The relay noise is only an issue with CW. Actually, I'm surprised this a relay and not a PIN diode given the cost of the amp. Both the blower and relay could benefit from better mechanical isolation from the chassis.
Both the 8410 and 9500 have USB telemetry outputs but only the 9500 has a software interface to display the data. I wrote my own C# program for 8410 telemetry logging and display that I'll upload to the RF Concepts user forum site soon.
Pros -
Solid construction
Minimal to no tweaking of tune/load necessary as power output is changed
100% duty cycle at 1.5 kW
Telemetry data available via USB
Great customer service
It will bypass 500W RF (I use my Elecraft KPA500 in-line ahead of the 8410, either while the 8410 is warming up or when I don't need more than 500W)
Aesthetically, it looks great - always a plus with a major purchase ;-)
Overall, highly recommended - even if you're hesitant about manual tuning.
|
|
KQ0C
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Nov 1, 2011 10:36
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
Super easy to Tune
|
Time owned: 3 to 6 months
|
I have an Alpha 9500 at my main QTH but needed a second amp for a contest shack way up on a hill. I was reluctant to spend all that another 9500 would run so I went with the 8410. Yes there are probably other good amps I could buy for a bit less, but I live in Colorado and if I ever have a problem with my amps I can drive them in for repair. As everyone knows shipping amps is complex at best. As it is I've never had a problem so my amps are as reliable as Alphas are known to be.
Anyway I expected tuning to be about as touchy as tuning a manual antenna tuner, where I have to fiddle quite a bit to find the optimum tune, and I have been really surprised how much more easily this amp tunes than I expected... much easier than any antenna tuner I have ever used. Set it to the factory suggested settings for any band, tune at low power in 3 seconds at most, then confirm the tune at high power (it rarely needs any further adjustment). In many ways I find it easier to switch bands with this amp than the 9500. I have certainly tripped the protection many fewer times than I have with the auto tune 9500.
If I had it all to do over again I actually think I would have been just as happy (or happier) with two 8410's.
Both amps will tune antennas with a bit of SWR just fine. So you can tune all of 80 meters for instance with a 66 foot wire thrown over a tall tree. And with the 8410 there is very little to go wrong... and protections for essentially all of what the operator can do wrong.
My advice to those on the fence... absolutely don't worry about the "complexity" of tuning this manual tune amp... 3 or 4 seconds at most. And you'll never run this thing even close to its real capacity.
CQWW SSB was last weekend, and until you have run 1500 watts with some decent antennas you will never experience the true ease of cutting through a pile up. 95% of my QSOs were accomplished on a first call in the most competitive contest of the year.
|
|
W4PF
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Oct 30, 2011 13:57
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
Fantastic piece of equipment.
|
Time owned: 0 to 3 months
|
|
I just received my 8410 a couple of days ago. I can only echo what others have said, it is a excellent piece of equipment. Well made and easy to use. With only 25 watts of drive, it puts out 1500 watts on 10 meters. Even though it is expensive, this is a good investment. The only negative comment I have, is the manual that comes with the amp has errors in it, and its quality needs improving.
|
|
K7CHE
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Oct 19, 2011 06:28
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
FLAWLESS
|
Time owned: 3 to 6 months
|
I, like most hams have owned several amps. I thought most were good amps until I put my first Alpha, (Alpha 89), in line and found that there was no comparison. I traded the 89 in for my 8410 in July of this year. I had it in line for 3 days and my antenna took a lightening strike. Now, the best part of owning an Alpha, is the customer support! I called Molly and sent my amp into the factory. After an inspection they were sure that it could be repaired without any problems showing up in the future. Long story short, I had it back in a very short time. I actually think it operates better now that before. 16 watts drive on 160 to 10 meters delivers 1500 watts out! I use it every day and it is the best amp I have ever owned! Thank you Molly and the Alpha techs.
73 K7CHE
|
|
If you have any questions, problems, or suggestions about Reviews,
please email your Reviews Manager.
|
|
|
|
|
