On 3/12/2021 6:33 AM, Fred Kemmerer wrote:
I do something similar here. The problem is that it's easy to forget that you
have increased the fan speed during long idle periods when you are not in the
same room as the amplifier. This results in unnecessary wear on the fans.
My neighbor K6XX is the mfg engineer for Elecraft amps. This summer, Bob
lost his home and large contesting station to a wildfire, and borrowed
my KPA1500 for a weekend contest. When he returned it, he noted that one
of my fans had excessive wear and was jammed with dust. Since I use the
amp a lot on 6M with digital modes, it can run really hot, especially
with long MS QSOs, so I did what you did -- setting the fan speed very
high from the start. Bob advised me to set the default speed to zero and
let the amp speed it up as required. I've since been doing that, and
while the temp gets up to 90C, the amp seems happy.
6M is the most challenging for this amp because the devices are least
efficient, so I limit my power to about 1kW on 6M using long intervals
(like Q65-60 or -120).
73, Jim K9YC
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