I suspect the reason the power supply fans run at constant speed is that
they are part of the Meanwell power supply, and beyond Elecraft's
control due to warranty issues, etc. I certainly can't fault Elecraft
for using that power supply, as it's cost effective and probably helped
get the KPA1500 on the market more quickly. We can hope that perhaps
some day Meanwell will switch to a temperature controlled fan.
I don't find mine particularly loud, as the RF deck fans drown them out
even at their lower speeds. Even the K3 fans will drown it out when I'm
running in a CW contest. I use some very good passive headphones,
however. I don't think it's realistic to expect to be able to operate
with an amplifier in the shack without headphones. However, the KPA1500
is fully capable of remote operation, so you could put it in the next room.
73,
Scott K9MA
On 6/10/2019 18:57, eric norris via Elecraft wrote:
More broadly, has there been any progress on reducing the piercing power supply
fan noise on the KPA1500 when only using it as a tuner or an antenna switch? I
complained about this a year ago, and I find it completely unacceptable. No
set of noise-reducing headphones that I have tried works well enough to make
the noise tolerable. I've tried moving the PS deck around with minimal
improvement. This just doesn't seem to fit Elecraft's philosophy of a quiet
operating environment. Why do these fans have to operate at full throttle when
there is minimal current draw from the rf deck? Why do these fans create such
a piercing high-pitched note?
If there is no response from Elecraft, what have other ops done--short of
moving the PS into an adjoining room--to mitigate the scream?
Thanks,
73 Eric WD6DBM
Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android
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