[ADXA] News from Alpha Radio Products

[E Glenn Wolf Jr]

Alpha Radio Products 	*Press Release*


Alpha Radio Products Announces

 
*Boulder, Colorado: September 15, 2009 *
* *
Dear Alpha Customer:

I have some exciting news about some big changes at Alpha Radio 
Products. A newly formed company, RF Concepts, LLC, has acquired all the 
assets of Alpha Radio Products. RF Concepts will manufacture the 
world-class amplifiers and other products that, for more than 40 years, 
our community has come to appreciate. The 3CX1500A7 triode-based Alpha 
9500 Amplifier, dual 4CX1000 tetrode-based Alpha 8410 Amplifier, 
legal-limit Model 2100 Dummy Load/Wattmeter combo, and line of 4500 
Wattmeters will continue to be handmade in our Boulder Colorado factory.

Here's the story about my involvement with Alpha Radio Products and the 
new company, RF Concepts, LLC:

I'm Michael Seedman, AA6DY. I was originally licensed in 1969 as WN6FUE, 
about the time that ETO released their first linear amplifier, the ALPHA 
SEVENTY. I remember reading QST, CQ, and Ham Radio Magazine cover to 
cover. Do you remember the Alpha ad where they put a brick on the 
straight key to signify "Full power, no limits"? I sure do - and ever 
since then I've wanted to own an Alpha amplifier. During the last 40 
years, my specific interests in Ham Radio have varied. Sometimes I spent 
my time building receivers, sometimes building transmitters, sometimes 
stringing antennas in the trees, and sometimes building QRP rigs. I've 
even built a homebrew 4-1000A based Linear Amplifier. Recently I've 
spent my spare time working DX. As my friend Jack Hudson, W9MU, says, 
"Life is too short for QRP when you're collecting countries." So I set 
out to build a QRO HF station. I ordered an HF rig, strung a couple of 
dipoles in the trees, and went looking for an amplifier. Of course, not 
just any amplifier, it had to be an Alpha. A few visits to eBay later I 
had a used Alpha 87A in my shack.

What a difference a few watts make. It didn't take long to rack up a 
couple hundred countries with my Alpha 87A loafing along at 1500 watts 
output. Soon the dipoles came down and the two-element Steppir went up. 
There's nothing more exciting than a callback when you're trying to bust 
a pileup. I was so impressed with my Alpha 87A that I called Alpha to 
purchase a new 9500. I was disappointed to learn that I would not 
receive it for months.

Molly Hardman, W0MOM, the president of Alpha Radio Products, explained 
that each amp is handmade. Although she said she'd love to put Alpha 
amplifiers on the shelf, she has had a difficult time financing the 
inventory necessary to do just that. Hers was a just-in-time 
manufacturing environment, and she held enough inventory to work on just 
a few orders. She shared some of her numbers with me. Together we 
created a way to capitalize the company in order to put amplifiers in 
inventory for immediate availability. Customers will no longer have to 
wait weeks or months to add an Alpha product to their station.

At the beginning of September 2009, the new company RF Concepts, LLC 
purchased all Alpha Radio Products assets and hired the seasoned team 
necessary to build these exceptional products. And, we've already put 
some changes in effect to make sure we serve our customers even better 
than before. There's still a lot of work to do, but we're very excited 
about the prospects.

Here's the lineup at the new RF Concepts, LLC:

    * Molly Hardman (W0MOM) will head up our sales effort as the new
      Vice President of Sales.
    * Brad Focken (K0HM), and Glenn Pladsen (AE0Q) will continue their
      awesome work on the front lines of engineering, service, and support.
    * Gordon Hardman (W0RUN), the designer who, along with Brad Focken
      (K0HM), engineered the award-winning Alpha 9500 and Alpha 8410,
      has joined the company as Vice President of engineering to develop
      new Alpha-branded products. He's got some great product ideas and
      is turning those ideas into reality.
    * Steve Farkas (WA2NFR), a seasoned executive and very creative
      engineer, has joined the company as president, responsible for
      overseeing and operating RF Concepts, LLC.

And here's what it means for our customers:

Effective September 1, 2009, we've lowered pricing on all Alpha products:

    * The Alpha 9500 Amplifier will be reduced from $10,150 to $7,950.
    * The Alpha 8410 Amplifier will be reduced from $5,895 to $4,995.
    * The Alpha 2100 Dummy load with its integrated wattmeter will be
      reduced from $1,950 to $1,495.
    * The Alpha 4520 Wattmeter will be reduced from $1,195 to $995, the
      Alpha 4510 Wattmeter will be reduced from $1,095 to $945; its
      front-panel-less computer-connected cousins, the Alpha 4505 and
      4515, will be reduced to $545 and $595 respectively.

· All customers who have orders pending with Alpha Radio Products will 
receive their new Alpha amplifiers from RF Concepts at the new, lower 
price. Any deposits made at Alpha Radio Products will be applied as 
discounts to your RF Concepts invoice. For instance, if you ordered an 
Alpha 9500 at $10,150 and sent Alpha Radio Products a $5,000 deposit, RF 
Concepts will deliver your Alpha 9500 for $7,950 - $5,000 = $2,950, plus 
any applicable shipping and taxes.

· If you're the original owner who received an Alpha amplifier from the 
factory during the period between March 1, 2009 and August 31, 2009, RF 
Concepts will give you a credit equal to the difference between your 
original purchase price and our new price. This effectively 
retroactively reduces the price you paid for the amp you've already 
received to match our new, lower price. This non-transferrable credit 
can be applied toward any RF Concepts product (including any 
Alpha-branded product), through August 31, 2010. Use it today to buy 
anything in our product line, or save it and use it later on one of our 
upcoming products. Please understand that the credit can be redeemed 
only at RF Concepts and has no cash value. It's our way of saying thanks 
for being an Alpha Radio Products customer.

We will focus on shipping our backlog of Alpha amplifiers and building 
sufficient product to ship from stock. No more waiting for delivery 
while your amp is being built. When you're ready to place an Alpha amp 
at your operating position, give us a call.

We will continue to operate from the existing Boulder, Colorado factory, 
use the same phone number and retain the www.alpharadioproducts.com URL 
along with the new www.rfconcepts.com URL. We will honor our existing 
customer commitments, including warranties, customer and technical 
support, and repairs, and keep our extensive parts inventories to 
support the more than 10,000 Alpha amplifiers in the market.

Please visit us online, drop us a note, call us, or stop by our booth at 
one of the many Amateur Radio conventions and Hamfests we'll be 
attending this year.

We are grateful that you have chosen Alpha Radio Products, and look 
forward to serving you in the future.

73's
Michael Seedman, AA6DY
Chairman
RF Concepts, LLC




 


  	 



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