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Reviews For: N4UQ Alpha Amplifier Repair & Upgrade Service

Category: Amateur Radio Equipment Repair

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Review Summary For : N4UQ Alpha Amplifier Repair & Upgrade Service
Reviews: 52MSRP: Varies
Description:
Excellent repair and upgrade service for the Alpha 76, 77, 78 & 374 amplfier line.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.n4uq.com/index.htm
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00525
K1TO Rating: 2018-01-14
Outstanding Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Dick also repairs 87As. I mistakenly mentioned in my review last year that this is on a walk-in basis only. I found no way to edit my review, hence this new one. Rest of text is repeated...
He diagnosed and replaced some tiny diodes deep in the bowels of the amp, then found that one of the transformer connecting pins needed to be redone.
Dick deserves many accolades. He is thorough, accurate, reasonable and goes above and beyond the call of duty. I've recommended him many times already and will continue to do so. There are none better.
K1IT Rating: 2017-07-27
Doesn't get better than this! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
If you own an Alpha amplifier you need to burn this name into your memory – Dick Byrd. If you ever need to have any service or repair to your Alpha amp Dick will make your life easy. As others have commented here he is a rare combination of a communicator, a superb technician and diagnostician, does absolutely 1st class work and is a great guy!
A fellow ham and I had to have repairs done to our Alpha 89’s and Dick quickly diagnosed and repaired the various problems, preformed the factory modifications for this model and provided a complete verification sheet by band of drive power, amp settings and associated output. In fact he completed all the work in 2 days of receiving the amps.
I am happy to give my unreserved recommendation for Dick and for the work he does.
N9CHM Rating: 2017-06-24
Excellent work!! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Got my Alpha 374A back from Dick today. This is the 3rd Alpha I've had him work on over the years. No one does it better than Dick, he is indeed the Alpha amp guru. I highly recommend his work if you need to either check out a legacy Alpha you just picked up, or want to upgrade the amp. His work is impeccable and very fairly priced. He had already added the 3rd 8874 and did the WARC mod for the previous owner. He replaced my sticking relay and a few other small parts and I was going to have him upgrade the amp with 3CX800s, but my 3-8874 tubes checked out as if they were new. The thorough data test with an output chart from 160M-10M verified the existing tubes were indeed working as new. The 374A has many years left in it, thanks in part to Dick's excellent work.
K4FLH Rating: 2017-06-13
Better than Excellent Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Dick took my sick 374 and made it work like a new amp. The previous owner did some bad repair work and the amp developed a no start problem that Dick fixed. Then he went and repaired the old repairs! At my request he further trouble shot the amp saw a few questionable caps and diodes and replaced them for reliability sake.
I took the amp down to him on a Saturday, it was ready the next Wednesday! It didn't cost me an arm and a leg either. Very fair price for the quality of work done.
On the personal side, Dick is a warm, genuine, no BS guy. I'm fortunate to have been able to meet him face to face.
Thank you Dick for the fine work!
N4XFA Rating: 2017-05-29
Top Shelf Service Time Owned: more than 12 months.
While preparing for the "last big contest" of the year, the CQ WPX, the output SO-239 connector melted down on my 76A. This occurred Wednesday night around 11 p.m. The next morning, Thursday, I emailed Dick about the problem and he quickly responded to bring the amp to his QTH around noon. I told Dick that I wanted to use the amp in the WPX over the weekend, which was the next evening. In less than 24 hours, Dick had my 76A up and running. Not only that, Dick installed one of his proprietary QSK boards that brings grid current protection to the 76A. After getting the amp back, the 76A worked flawlessly. Additionally, his protection board saved me several times during the contest from inadvertent mistakes!

If you have an Alpha, I would not hesitate to let Dick work on my Amp. He does not cut corners and all of his work is top quality. Amazingly, as good as these amps are, Dick will make them better!
KB0NNU Rating: 2017-02-25
Was all good news Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Don't send an amp to Dick Byrd. He seems like a really nice guy. He will fix your amp super fast and reasonable. When you get it back it will work so good you will sit in the shack all day and make contacts and not do your chores (like going to work and stuff) people will yell at you.
WZ1U Rating: 2017-02-23
Alpha 86 Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Sent my Alpha 86 down to Dick to have the vacuum relay mod. done, also adding 7 new HV caps and installing an external fan. Turn around time was 2 weeks and he did a great job. He is the man when it comes to Alpha amplifiers.
W2FBS Rating: 2016-12-13
Great work and the best service Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Well, Dick has gone and done it again! He took in my old Alpha 78, fixed all of the problems I knew it had and refurbished it like new. New filter caps, relays and much more. I have had this amp since the early 90's (bought used), and hope to keep it a lot longer. Dick had added the WARC bands to it for me years ago and that mod looks like it was done by the factory.

Dick is a genius with older Alphas and doesn't ask for your first born child in return. Great work at very reasonable price.

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Earlier 5-star review posted by W2FBS on 2010-02-17

I sent Dick my 78 to be checked over and have the WARC bands added. He did it while I was on vacation so I was only without for a few days. He did a very impressive job. He added the new bands, re-lettered the front panel with the new bandswitch location, added step-start and did a general go-over.
Well, it works better than ever before. Loads easier with less drive and less grid current.
If you have an Alpha that needs help, send it to Dick. You will not be sorry
WU9P Rating: 2016-10-04
Great Service! Great Guy! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I had recently purchased a used Alpha 89 which quickly developed a problem in the timer circuit. Amplifier would not go into operate mode from warm-up. There was also an issue with the tune indicator circuitry. Dick corrected all these problems and upgraded the power supply while he was at it, and had everything working the way it was supposed to.
Dick kept me updated as he progressed along with the repair, explaining what was wrong and the solution need to effectively fix the problem. The whole process form beginning to end was conducted very professionally. Pricing was very reasonable and turn around was also very good. If you are having a problem with your Alpha Amplifier I would highly recommend sending it to Dick, he is a very nice person to deal with and he will do his best to fix you up.
K1ERP Rating: 2016-02-23
Outstanding Alpha Tech!! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I'd been having repeated T/R faults with my Alpha 86 & I ended up with smoked PA's in my Flex 5K. Sent it off to Dick for his vacuum relay mod. Now it just purrrrrs along without any problems. If you have an Alpha that needs help, Dick is the "go to" guy!