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[Amps] Alpha 87A Alphamax upgrade

To: amps@contesting.com
Subject: [Amps] Alpha 87A Alphamax upgrade
From: kk2ed@comcast.net
Date: Sun, 3 Jan 2010 02:15:21 +0000 (UTC)
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Good Evening, 



I recently purchased an Alpha 87A, and the original purchaser provided me with 
the Alphamax upgrade kit, which Alpha sent him, but he never installed.  It 
consists of a PAL (U8) and an eprom (U7) which are to be changed out.   I 
replaced the PAL and eprom, and installed the berg jumper, as per the included 
instructions.  However, when completed, the amplifier hard faults off within 10 
seconds of power up.  



I immediately pulled the new eprom, and reinstalled the original eprom, then 
removed the new berg jumper, and re-assembled the amp.  It works perfectly with 
the old eprom once again. As per the instructions, the new PAL can remain in 
place if/when reverting to the older software eprom. 



Just to be sure, I tried the procedure again, with the same results. The worst 
part is the eprom's location, so it requires pulling the front panel each time! 



The only thing I can guess is that the eprom lost some "bits" from sitting in a 
box the past 9 years or so.  Or, the eprom was programmed improperly from the 
get-go. 



I have eprom burning equipment here in my shop, so burning another eprom (or 
erasing/re-burning this one) would not be an issue, but the bin image file is 
not available online anywhere as far as I can tell. Therefore, even if I 
read the current eprom I have in my hands, I can't verify it's contents. 



Of course, this had to happen on a weekend, so I can't even call Alpha 
(now RFC) until Monday. 



Would anyone happen to have an image of the 87A's Alphamax-capable eprom 
contents, or at least know the CRC checksum? 



Anyone else experience a similar situation? 





Thanks, 



Eric 

K2WD 


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