Jon, I do not believe your condition has anything to do with digital modes, but rather sounds like you have a power control problem - it should not heat up that it is too hot to touch, and not as fast as you indicate. I assume a K2/100. If so, please use an external wattmeter to determine just how much power it is really producing. Also, see if the power control properly controls the power? I am suspecting that you have some problem with the KPA100 wattmeter (like damaged diodes from a lightning surge) and it is developing full uncontrolled power output, which for some KPA100s can be as high as 180 watts.
73, Don W3FPR On 9/26/2010 11:42 AM, Jon Perelstein wrote: > This is a follow-up to a post about two months ago. > > I'm still getting pretty high heat on my K2 when running digital modes such as > PSK, Olivia, etc. Per the recommendation of Don and a few others, I'm > adjusting > the K2 so that my desired power output is set on the Power control (25 watts), > and then I'm setting my input gain (using a Signalink) so that (a) I do not > exceed that power on the display and (b) I have one bar on the ALC. > > Despite that, the K2 heats up rapidly. After one or two transmissions of 2-3 > minutes each, the K2's fan will stay on high speed for all transmissions and > the > top of the K2 is hot to the touch. As it heats up, people notice drift of +/- > 20 Hz (on 20 meters) as the rig warms up during transmit, even with the fan > kicking in. > > The K2 does cool down on long receives, which indicates that the fan is having > some impact, but obviously not enough. For now I have aimed a desk fan at the > K2 when operating digital and it has reduced the heat and the drift. > > Is all this normal for digital on the K2? Are there things I should be > looking > at that might perhaps be indicating a problem in my build? > ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
