When you turn on your power supply and it shows 26 volts, are you going
to turn on your radio? Thus paying attention to the meters will
protect your radio. If when operating a contest for hours and you find
the output drops off, wouldn't you glance at the meters?
As to power distribution
Having meters will protect my radio? I doubt that assertion.
Most radios today remain connected to their power supplies even when turned
off, much like a computer. In the case of a K3, it is always connected to
the power supply, even when off. So unless we don't connect the K3 to the
power
: elecraft@mailman.qth.net
> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Electrolytic Capacitor failure
>
> All of my supplies have both voltage and current meters and they are in
> a position I can see them when I turn them on. With supplies which do
> not have meters, when one turns them on, you never kn
-
From: elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net
[mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Bob McGraw K4TAX
Sent: Friday, April 17, 2020 2:50 PM
To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Electrolytic Capacitor failure
All of my supplies have both voltage and current meters
I guess I'm fortunate, I've had Astrons running 24/7 for decades without
any failure. A 20A powers my repeater (IRLP node, 25 watt), a 35A power
the Elecraft products and I just installed a 60A rack mount to replace
them both (all are adjusted to 14.2 for spectral purity plus I can
charge
I have always been taught and thus have a concern when power supplies of
excessive capacity are used for any type of service. If the wiring, in
this case, between the power supply and the radio is #12 or #14 of any
length typically supplied by radio companies, should a short occur in
the
I also use an Astron RS-70 for my K3Ss. Like you, mine was not
purchased for this purpose. It is under my desk so the physical size
is not an issue and I have no worries about overloading it.
John KK9A
Barry w2up at comcast.net
I got a kick out of "big hulking supply," too. I have an
I got a kick out of "big hulking supply," too. I have an RS-70 on my K3. It
used to power a lot more stuff, but since I downsized my station, it loafs
along. Definitely overkill, but it sits under the desk, out of the way, so
why not? Oh yeah, my keyer's on it, too, and still doesn't get warm,
Hi David,
I was a civilian Electrical Engineer with the US Army before the FAA
stint. We absolutely required the components used in critical systems to
be operated well below the "rated" thresholds. I did HV substation
design for places such as Marshall Space Flight Center and Redstone
Arsenal
Ray,
I reported to this forum (ca. February 2019) a similar, though not
identical, problem involving my K3/10 while running from an Astron RS-20A
supply. My problem occurred in receive mode rather than transmit mode,
which made it a bit more difficult to understand because the current demand
for
They are rarely operated 24/7, and they aren't usually supervised by
career engineers. Most hams are relatively inexperienced hobbyists who
may not recognize a problem until it is catastrophic. Someone in this
thread already mentioned that nearly all ham shacks have a bad
electrolytic lurking
.com/K3S/Manuals%20Downloads/K3S%20Owner's%20man%20A1.pdf
>
>
> 73
> Frank
> W3LPL
>
>
>
> - Original Message -----
>
> From: "Ray Albers"
> To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net
> Sent: Wednesday, April 15, 2020 7:31:23 PM
> Subject: [E
st one bad one under the bench.
What destroyed the FAA is fanatical political correctness.
73 Leroy AB7CE
-Original Message-
From: Gill via Elecraft
Sent: Thursday, April 16, 2020 8:19 AM
To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net
Subject: [Elecraft] Electrolytic Capacitor failure
As Harlan point
Hello Gill
Doing reliability calculations to MIL 217 was very instructive many years ago
and it taught me that operating well under the limits extended MTBF a lot.
Some military customers instructed that specs were 60% or more degraded to
achieve longer service life. What was your experience
As Harlan pointed out - I was an engineer for the FAA until retirement -
We changed electrolytics as part of normal PM's on critical systems
usually every 5 years or so. CDE (Cornell Dubilier) indicates expected
life (MTBF) of devices operated within rated voltage & temp specs to be
about
al"
ftp.elecraft.com/K3S/Manuals%20Downloads/K3S%20Owner's%20man%20A1.pdf
73
Frank
W3LPL
- Original Message -
From: "Ray Albers"
To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net
Sent: Wednesday, April 15, 2020 7:31:23 PM
Subject: [Elecraft] Electrolytic Capacitor fa
Very short unless that was a design goal! It’s all about temperature. Operate
an 85c electrolytic near 85c and it’s not going to be around long.
73
Josh W6XU
Sent from my mobile device
> On Apr 15, 2020, at 1:09 PM, John Kosko wrote:
>
> Two to five year life span sounds a little short to
Two to five year life span sounds a little short to me. I’ve been earning my
primary income in electronics for over 60 years and my experience shows that
most electrolytic capacitors last between ten and twenty years. But, usually
they will show leakage around seals before they fail. I guess
I retired in 2016 after 34 years as the metrology supervisor at a commercial
nuclear power plant. I couldn’t count the number of equipment failures due to
electrolytic capacitors, WAY TOO MANY. Some brands of equipment had high
percentage failures while other brands had low. Seems the
I don't know that I would run a K3 off a 20A power supply. You're
stressing both. Did you mean to say 30A?
Buck, k4ia
Honor Roll
8BDXCC
EasyWayHamBooks.com
On 4/15/2020 3:31 PM, Ray Albers wrote:
I could use some knowledge and/or opinions on this subject (Radio/Elecraft
related only because
I could use some knowledge and/or opinions on this subject (Radio/Elecraft
related only because it deals with a power supply that powers a K3!)
The other day I was about to initiate a call, and as soon as I touched the
"dah" paddle the K3 instantly shut off. The cause was that the power
supply
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