I spent 15 minutes active on 20M FT8 this afternoon (some lurking).
At 530 watts output (on the display and utility) into a 1.13:1 antenna load (SteppIR) for a ten minute calling period (Mongolia then Oman), the temp rose to 66C; a few moments of elevated fan quickly brought that down to the low 60's between transmissions.
Ambient room temp 77F. (Both calls succeeded.) Rick NK7I North Idaho On 5/3/2020 7:42 PM, Andy Durbin wrote:
"It is interesting to hear how others experience their KPA500s over various conditions." I have over a years's worth of KPA500 data recorded but it takes some effort to run it through the Excel templates to make pretty plots. My KPA500 temperatures are strongly influenced by ambient temperature. Shack temperature is often over 30 deg C in the summer months and it's not at all unusual for my fan to run at level 3 in FT8 QSO. I think I have only reached fan speed 5 twice and that was while running temperature tests not while operating. I terminated those tests at fan speed 5 and didn't wish to push it any higher. So many people seem to think reducing the output power will keep the temperature down. It does not. Half power is about the worst heat dissipation condition for the KPA500. 73, Andy, k3wyc ______________________________________________________________ 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]
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