User's Manual

ALPHA 9500 Interim OPERATING MANUAL

www.alpharadioproducts.com

6 Operation & Maintenance

The ALPHA 9500 is extremely easy to operate, but failure to carry out each

procedure exactly as described in this manual is likely to lead to ampliﬁer damage,

which is not covered under warranty. Damage to other station equipment may

also result.

6.1 Before Operating Your Alpha 9500

6.1.1 Setting Input Drive

You must set the transceiver output power properly. Virtually all damage to date has resulted

directly from severe overdrive. The ALPHA 9500 requires about 50 W drive for full rated output.

Damage caused by applying several times rated drive power to the ALPHA 9500 will not

be covered under warranty. Fortunately, most modern transceivers maintain quite consistent

output from band-to-band and mode-to-mode when set up properly.

CAUTION:

Setting only the transceiver POWER or RF PWR control IS NOT SUFFICIENT.

Several popular transceivers can generate RF spikes of 200-300 W. Control of

these spikes typically is done with a knob labeled DRIVE (IC-781, FT-1000) or

PROCESSOR OUT (TS-940, TS-950). On SSB, when speech processing is not used,

adjust the MIC or MIKE controls. See the operator’s manual for your particular

transceiver.

6.1.2 Dealing with Faults

The ALPHA 9500 “faults” into STBY or OFF when unsafe operating conditions occur. This

is shown when the OPR switch goes from ON to OFF and the STBY switch turns ON instead (soft

fault), or when the ampliﬁer shuts off completely (hard fault).