At 45 degrees Celsius, the K3 fans were probably running at speed 2. I don't like to hear the fans throttling up and down, so I set mine to run at speed 4 before yesterday's RTTY contest. Not only did they run at constant speed, keeping things cool, but they gave me the feeling that I was running big power with all that fan noise. The noise at speed 4 sounds quite pleasant to me.
The following is a copy of a reflector posting I made on 20090312: I did an experiment on my two K3's - key down at 100 watts for four minutes while noting PA Temp and fan speed. Both K3's behaved identically and both leveled off at PA Temp = 64C after about 3 minutes. For the record, here are the results (best viewed with Courier font): Time Temp Fan 0:00 26C 0 0:26 37 1 0:44 41 2 1:19 50 3 1:45 55 4 2:40 60 4 2:50 62 4 3:15 64 4 4:00 64 4 Room temp was 77F. According to the manual, the PA is set to drop into bypass at 84C, so it didn't even come close. Dave Hachadorian, K6LL Yuma, AZ -----Original Message----- From: Jim Brown Sent: Sunday, February 27, 2011 11:01 AM To: Reflector Elecraft Subject: [Elecraft] Elecraft Power Ratings I ran an NAQP RTTY contest yesterday, and after CQing on 20M for a while as it was closing, looked at the PA temperature. It was only 45 degrees C, well below the point where fans would turn on and/or speed up to provide more cooling. The K3 is not alone in conservative design -- my vintage IC746, which I bought many years ago to use on 6M and 2M, is also rated for 100W in keydown modes, even on 2M. 73, Jim K9YC ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
