Mike, Sorry for your bad experience. But, aren't you glad that you are dealing with Elecraft who will do a good job of responding to your problems. Just think if you had bought a THP or Ameritron Amp and had to deal with problems.
Hope to hear about the ultimate problem and fix. I do think that Friday the 13th possibly marked you with bad karma. phil, K7PEH On May 27, 2011, at 7:30 PM, ai6ii wrote: > It is out of great frustration that I write this. What's up with Elecraft > and the KPA500? I was so excited when KPA500 arrived May 11th. It was a > culmination of six months of waiting and saving and finally it was here! > Having previously built my K3, P3 and W2, this time I chose to get it > factory built, mostly because I would be operational a month or two so > sooner. BUT when I set it up everything worked great except for 20 meters. > It failed to put out anything more than 270W on 14.MHz. I contacted Dale at > Elecraft and we went through some 'over the phone' tests. He said he would > need to talk with the engineers and called me back later in the day with > more tests to run. Bottom line.it needed to be returned. He said it looked > like a problem with the low pass filter. I boxed it up, paid USPS the $50 to > send it back and waited. So far, okay, a little disappointing, but okay. I > am not superstitions, but that was Friday 13th. > > > > So yesterday I received the KPA500 back with a letter explaining the low > output on 14 MHz was due to three failed capacitors in the low pass filter. > They were repaired and an upgrade/mod was also performed: "Front Panel VDD > 5A Bypass Cap" (I haven't a clue what that means.) It had been bench tested > for four hours and "KPA500 SN0026 meets or exceeds all factory > specifications". Great. Good to go. > > > > And this is when it gets bad. I set all the cabling back up including the > 1KW dummy load and turn the amp on..nothing. I check the rocker switch in > back .nothing. Looking for troubleshooting info in the manual, I notice the > instructions for setting up 115 vs. 220 voltage, and open the fuse box. Ah > hah! No fuses .surprising because when I first got the amp it had fuses in > place. There were a set of fuses included in the original packaging so I > inserted them..turned it on.nothing.checked the fuses they were blown. And > of course this is at 5:15 pm on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend. I > though I would get a few hours of hamming in with the new amp. No such luck. > I'll go get a couple more fuses tomorrow and try again, but I am not > hopeful. I have to wait until Tuesday to call which means I have no one to > talk to about this. That's why I am posting this hard luck story, out of > frustration. This is one Elecraft enthusiast who is really bummed out. I > hope you have better luck. I am surprised mine is so bad. > > > > ..mike AI6II > > ______________________________________________________________ > 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 ______________________________________________________________ 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
