No, it is NOT an insulator. That's why it's called a pad and not an insulator.
That resistor can be called upon to handle quite a bit of dissipation at times. The "pad" helps improve the thermal path to the cover which acts as a heatsink. The pad is soft so it makes more intimate contact with the cover metal than just the metal tab and cover alone. Many KAT500s have undergone rigorous usage without benefit of the pad. It was added as part of Elecraft's philosophy of doing everything they can to make the rig as robust as possible. It's not a big deal to install it later. You'll need to remove the top cover and then remove screw and nut holding the resistor tab to the bottom cover. Then you can remove the bottom cover, stick the thermal pad (it has self-stick material) on the resistor tab and put everything back. 73, Ron AC7AC -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Phil Hystad Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2012 8:09 PM To: Sam Morgan Cc: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Elecraft] [KAT500] KAT500-K thermal pad question Sam, My KAT500 kit #223 arrived yesterday and I did the parts inventory and I was missing the thermal pad too. I immediately sent off a part request to [email protected] and got immediate response and I expect the thermal pad to arrive in tomorrow's mail. Unless you are in that much of a rush to get the kit built, why not wait for the actual replacement part from Elecraft. They are very responsive and quick to deal with these things. Judging from my own experience, I think that the total "business hours" time from the point of receive of my e-mail to getting notice from Elecraft that they sent the part to me in the mail was no more then 3 hours at the most! That is speedy service. 73, phil, K7PEH On Nov 29, 2012, at 6:12 PM, Sam Morgan <[email protected]> wrote: > My KAT500 K #0233 arrived missing the 'thermal pad' > perhaps some of you who have already built your kit, could answer my > question....... > what is this missing 'thermal pad'? > > Is it something to insulate R6 from the case, like used on a > transistor to insulate it from ground? > > or > > is it something to help transfer heat to the case? > > if it's the latter could I temporally use some CPU thermal paste until > the replacement part arrives? > > TIA > > -- > > GB & 73 > K5OAI > Sam Morgan > ______________________________________________________________ > 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 ______________________________________________________________ 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
