I'm gonna jump on this before Eric pulls the plug and takes US to the woodshed.
I have had a rig(s) of some sort in my vehicles over the past 38 years driving, in the central Adirondack mts of NY. Today I used a laser thermometer it was 145 on my dash. I have a pic of my car thermometer last February it was minus 40f. If anyone wants to see pix email me offline. I ran all day FYBO contest at -17f with my kx3, look at my QRZ page. Stop the fussing and get on the air!!! I think I made it under the wire. 73 Dean K2WW On Thu, Jul 5, 2018, 22:38 Michael Walker <[email protected]> wrote: > Just to expand on this and share my experiences. > > I have been running a remote station in Ontario for 15 years. The building > is not heated or cooled at all. > > It has seen from 100F down to -20F without issue. The radios have been > Kenwood TS480 to a Flex 6300 and during the time, the amps were either an > SGC500 or a KPA500. The TS480 and the KPA500 come right online from the > coldest days possible. One day it took 10 minutes of full power RTTY to > get the amp temp to read above 0C (32F). That is how cold it was. > > The Flex 6300 is only engineered to 0F for the FPGA as it is not cold > temperature hardened. My solution to that is that I don't turn off the > Flex all winter as the FPGA generates enough heat (about 5 watts) to keep > itself warm. > > The humidity ranges from 20% to 100% and it can change from that in weeks > if not days. That past week it has been mid 90's and about the same in > humidity. > > I have a few tower control boxes and for the most part, they are open at > the bottom to let any moisture drain out should it happen to get inside as > I have given up on total box waterproofing. I have seen too many equipment > boxes flooded, so 1/16" holes seem to solve that. Fresh water does not > hurt most electronics. Yes, those in Salt Water areas have bigger > problems. > > I've taken a KX2 out of a car that was at -20C and used it (yes, the LCD > was slow). That same KX2 has been taken from its pelican case at +35C and > used it. It might have been a bit off frequency but I had no way of > telling or hearing if it actually was. > > I have yet to have an issue in the past 15 years that I can relate to being > in a non-environmentally controlled room. > > The same is true for our cars that see the same temperature extremes > without issues (other than car batteries that fail). I take that back. > On one car, my XM radio antenna would fail if it got too cold. Welcome to > the Great White North! > > The short story is, the electronics we use today are well engineered and > can handle temperature extremes and with a bit of ventilation help, they > should work just fine. > > Mike va3mw > > > > On Thu, Jul 5, 2018 at 7:04 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: > > > We engineered electronics packages for these types of environment, from > > desert to arctic. Keys for success: > > 1- Inside of housing must be designed to route any condensation away from > > the electronics. Design ENCOURAGES condensation on normally cooler > > enclosure surfaces, not the electronics. > > 2- A compartment heater (actually a high wattage, low value resistor) is > > ALWAYS energized to keep interior air temperature and temperature of > > electronic assemblies slightly above exterior. > > 3- Compartment must be absolutely air tight so as not to allow breathing > as > > atmospheric pressure changes. > > Condensation that occurs collects on housing and drains to bottom of > > enclosure. If cooling is required, it must be done with heat exchanger > to > > avoid ingress of outside air. > > BTW, mission critical equipment was housed in nitrogen purged > compartments, > > including conduit which is major source of humid air flow! We required > > that > > equipment stored during construction must have compartment heaters > > energized. > > So, it can be done. > > Ken ke4rg > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: [email protected] <[email protected] > > > > On > > Behalf Of Dave Sublette > > Sent: Thursday, July 5, 2018 8:38 AM > > To: Elecraft Discussion List <[email protected]> > > Subject: [Elecraft] Equipment Storage and operation > > > > I should start with an apology to the group. Although I stand by what I > > said in a previous post, I feel that the way I expressed myself was in > > violation of decorum standards for this group. I am sorry for that. > > > > <snip> > > > > ______________________________________________________________ > > 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 > > Message delivered to [email protected] > > > ______________________________________________________________ > 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 > Message delivered to [email protected] > ______________________________________________________________ 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 Message delivered to [email protected]
