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Reviews For: Alpha 99

Category: Amplifiers: RF Power - HF & HF+6M

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Review Summary For : Alpha 99
Reviews: 79MSRP: 3850 + shipping
Description:
The Ultimate Value in a linear amplifier - Made in USA
Product is not in production
More Info: http://www.rkrdesignsllc.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00794.9
AB8NI Rating: 2003-12-18
FIRST CLASS Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I received my 99 about a week ago and it was well worth the wait (6 weeks). I have owned a AL-1500 that sounded like a 474 winding up for take off and a YAESU QUADRA that never did work right. The 99 with the extra blower is quite enough to leave running all day and sits less than 2 feet from me. Tune up is a no brainer with the "BY THE NUMBERS" system and it just idles at 1500 watts with 45 in. The wait....well the best thing in my life is my son and I had to wait 9 months for him so 6 weeks was a breeze for the 2nd best thing in my life (Hmmmm that leaves my wife 4th or 5th after the bass boat and dog). If your tired of sitting on the porch and want to run with the BIG dogs give Molly a call.
K5WAG Rating: 2003-10-19
Excellent Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
This one is as good as the first one and you don't have to get parts from Australia.This is a Kangaroo kicker.
K1VZ Rating: 2003-10-19
Excellent Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Super amplifier. Worked without a glitch from day one. Build quality excellent, documentation good. Delivered when they said it would. Tune up a breeze.

I used several other amps before this one and though they worked okay but none of them compare to the ease, quality and faultless operation of this one. Maximum legal power to anything lower is as "linear" as a quality amplifer should be. Relay is so quiet I sometimes worry that it hasn't switched on. I went for the extra fan option. Highly recommend.
NC0B Rating: 2003-07-16
Solid Amp Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I would have rated it 4.5 if that had been an option. It blows my Alpha 76PA away. Loafs at 1500 watts out even with low 220 line voltage out in the country. Easy to tune. Great overload protection. Any tuning error, wrong antenna, or RF arc, it shuts off for 4 seconds. Quiet blower, even with the optional rear boxer fan. My only complaint is the QSK relay mounted on the chassis is too loud. My KI6SZ modified TL-922a has a virtually silent vacuum relay mounted a PC board.
KA4IZW Rating: 2003-06-24
There is no better Amp Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have not owned but 2 HF Amps. Licensed 1979
I owned a Clipperton L - up to when I bought a Alpha 99. Once I got over the price. I think there is not a better Amp on the market. It is a very easy Amp to turn in every way. I own one of the last of the 20 maded before they went to Crosslink. As of this day, I have runned 500 watts on this Amp everyday for 2 1/2 years. It do turn by the numbers !!!
WD4PLE Rating: 2003-06-15
wow Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
THIS IS MY FIRST ALPHA. THE EASIEST AMP I HAVE EVER TUNED. 15 WATTS GIVE ABOUT 500 WATTS OUT AND 45 GIVES FULL OUTPUT. I HAVE HAD MANY AMPS, INCLUDING SOLID STATE AMPS LIKE THE QUADRA, AND THEY DONT COME CLOSE. WOULDNT HAVE ANYTHING ELSE NOW. BUY ONE AND YOU WONT GO BACK.
N7XM Rating: 2003-06-05
Wonderful AMP ! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I love it! The is GREAT manual tune
amp - GU 74B(s) have fine electrical
and mechanical " track record".
Fast to tune, quiet, loafs at legal
limit ! A wonderful amp !
GW4OFQ Rating: 2003-02-24
Money Well Spent Time Owned: more than 12 months.
What can I say that has not been said, the Alpha 99 must be the best Amp ever produced for the Ham Radio Operator, I have been using mine now for about 2 years and I am as excited now when I switch it on as I was when I got it.
Here in the UK we are only able to run 400 watts so I had to be carefull only driving it with just over 10 watts, one day I thought I would try to see how much it would give at full drive now I have to look for a NEW ATU as the Drake MN-2700 burnt using my FT-1000mp & the Alpha 99, I have no idea on how much it puts out but at its maximum it gave a nice clean signal.
as you can tell I have never written a review before but had to say something as I think this Amp is the best bit of equipment I have ever purchased.
If you need an Amp get an Alpha.....
W0ZK Rating: 2002-10-30
Worth The Wait! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
It takes a while to get one, but it is well worth the wait. I would like to thank Molly (W7MOM), for putting in the effort to have it to me for CQWW. Unfortunately the conditions were horrible for the contest this year.

By the time I got it un-packed and hooked up, I was two hours into the contest. The "99" tuned up like a dream come true. I was impressed with the numbers used for the 48 hour burn in at ALPHA, and how close they were for me.

I have had 2 two Henry consoles, a Kenwood TL-922, and and Ameritron AL-80B over the years. Not a single one of them would put out the legal limit on all bands like the 99, and even the WARC bands. It does this without any effort what so ever, and runs extremly cool in the process.

I have only had this amplifier since last Friday evening, but from what I have experienced so far, all I can say is money well spent! And if the need was to come to replace the tubes, it can be accomplished for $220 a matched pair. What a deal!

I would advise anyone to take a close look at the value in this one.

73 Marv
N0AH Rating: 2002-09-17
Impress your XYL! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Last week, after my other amp had serious problems, I began looking for a replacement. Read all the reviews and knew this amp was red hot but cost and availabilty made me look into other options. (ding ding ding!!!!!)I gave the sales manager my name and sad story and she said she would call me if anything became available...yeah, right......

4 days later, the factory called me on a returned 99 that were selling at a reasonable discount. (I'm glad that they have a 30 day no questions asked return policy-) This got my attention as the wait is up to 6 weeks for one of these machines- My palms began to sweat- Then my cell phone crapped out and I veered into on coming traffic-

Before continuing, and for some back ground, I recently packed up my AL800H for a power supply rebuild to Ameritron. That same night, I missed DXCC# 322 without the amp when JX7DFA made a 4 am appearence on 14.195 working up 20. I only had 100 watts as my amp was doubled boxed in 10 gallons of popcorn cushions. With an obvious hole in the ozone layer, my signal never got there. Other W0's and W7's were working him with ease- Gasp! I had to fix this- Life really is unfair!!

Motivated, I began the trip down to HRO to pick up a small amp until mine was due back-

Thats when I got the call form Crosslink and my conversion to believing in DX Gods was complete. How did they know I was on my way to the candy store?? Was I worthy??? Did my Visa card have any room left? Or would the recent foreclosure and bankruptcy be a problem with credit?

I drove like a madman to Boulder, home of the CU Buffs and Elvis, and picked it up. I have not slept since then. XYL even seems impressed. It's now 7 a.m. in the morning- Amazing what a 400 mile round trip and Alpha 99 does to your adrenilyne.

The factory guys stayed late for me to get the amp and it has worked perfectly thus far. Dropping in the transformer was easy and I put out full legal on all bands running just over 50 watts. It does not take much more to push 2KW plus. (Into a dummy load of course......har!)

Major improvements over my Ameritron 800H with in shack noise reduction and a lot less heat felt in the room. I don't really hear this amps blower but maybe my ears are shot after being around other amp's blowers. And, BTW with Oh My God attached, this amp is built like a tank!! There are components for a picnic, and there are components for WW3........

Nothing against Ameritron, solid product for the most part and awesome power for the money! But you get what you pay for and the guts of this amp are down right impressive- My 800H compared to the Alpha 99 is like comparing my 72 Dodge Pick up to a 2003 F350 turbo charge. They'll both get you there, but man, what a difference in ride! It's fun to have both in the shack- I feel like a have a cadaver to practice my surgical skills on and a state of the art CPR dummy that you can have conversation with-

The LED's are very cool (daughter likes them!) and I find the amp to be a lot safer for my two year to be around as the case is air tight other than the tube stack vents. QSK is great!

As some have stated, SERVICE is the best, period! I won't go into all the details, but this company treated me like gold and that was unexpected.

They knew that I needed an amp when I inquired about their products last week, and they found a way to get me one in a hurry-

I did luck out with the return, but they didn't have to sale it to me at the discount and they didn't have to pick up the phone and find me- And they didn't have to stay late for me to have time to pick it up-, and they didn't have to give me the full 4 year warranty with used gear.

But they did all this with a fantastic amplifier and I am very happy with Crosslink. I've been around a lot of shacks with Alphas, now that I have one, I feel very complete, hi. Don't screw around with saving money if you want a bad boy deep fat fryer amp!! We are talking about your DXCC count here!

Get that Alpha!

73 Paul N0AH