Someone Wrote:
K2 #0771 is just a week shy of 7 years old.
In that time, except for brief periods of transport to
and from Field Day, and for bench work (upgrades), it
has been powered on continuously.
Yes, that's right, nearly seven years of power-on
time. Zero failures. Never disconnected from an
antenna.
This is Collins territory, folks.
Taking nothing away from Elecraft -- for the praise is well deserved,
especially the bit about being in Art Collins' league -- yet in all
fairness the same could be said of my Drake Twins which are now 36 years
old and have had no maintenance other than one new pair of finals about
15 years ago and one new driver about 10 years ago.
While I have not left them on continuously, they HAVE been cycled on and
off hundreds (perhaps thousands) of times during those 36 years which is
profoundly harder on components, especially switches. Thus likewise
"zero-failures" for Bob Drake's design in whose league we can equally
put Elecraft.
However, by comparison, during assembly of a KX1 I did note the warning
in the manual about not turning the RF gain control too frequently
because that pot "has a life expectancy of 200 rotations."
Hmmmmmm. I know I've rotated the RF gain (and also the AF gain) on the
R4-B a lot more than 200 revolutions over 36 years and have yet to need
even a squirt of De-Oxit on either one of those pots.
Moral . . .
Keep 'em cool, keep 'em dust-free, keep 'em happy with the impedance and
nearly ALL ham equipment will outlive it's owner.
My opinion only . . .
73,
Kent Trimble, K9ZTV
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