KPA500 problems

[mike]

It is out of great frustration that I write this. What's up with Elecraft
and the KPA500? I was so excited when KPA500 arrived May 11th. It was a
culmination of six months of waiting and saving and finally it was here!
Having previously built my K3, P3 and W2, this time I chose to get it
factory built, mostly because I would be operational a month or two so
sooner. BUT when I set it up everything worked great except for 20 meters.
It failed to put out anything more than 270W on 14.MHz. I contacted Dale at
Elecraft and we went through some 'over the phone' tests. He said he would
need to talk with the engineers and called me back later in the day with
more tests to run. Bottom line.it needed to be returned. He said it looked
like a problem with the low pass filter. I boxed it up, paid USPS the $50 to
send it back and waited. So far, okay, a little disappointing, but okay. I
am not superstitions, but that was Friday 13th.

 

So yesterday I received the KPA500 back with a letter explaining the low
output on 14 MHz was due to three failed capacitors in the low pass filter.
They were repaired and an upgrade/mod was also performed: "Front Panel VDD
5A Bypass Cap" (I haven't a clue what that means.) It had been bench tested
for four hours and "KPA500 SN0026 meets or exceeds all factory
specifications". Great. Good to go.

 

And this is when it gets bad. I set all the cabling back up including the
1KW dummy load and turn the amp on..nothing. I check the rocker switch in
back .nothing. Looking for troubleshooting info in the manual, I notice the
instructions for setting up 115 vs. 220 voltage, and open the fuse box. Ah
hah! No fuses .surprising because when I first got the amp it had fuses in
place. There were a set of fuses included in the original packaging so I
inserted them..turned it on.nothing.checked the fuses they were blown. And
of course this is at 5:15 pm on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend. I
though I would get a few hours of hamming in with the new amp. No such luck.
I'll go get a couple more fuses tomorrow and try again, but I am not
hopeful. I have to wait until Tuesday to call which means I have no one to
talk to about this. That's why I am posting this hard luck story, out of
frustration. This is one Elecraft enthusiast who is really bummed out. I
hope you have better luck. I am surprised mine is so bad.

 

..mike AI6II

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CONTENTS DELETED

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[Phil Hystad-3]

Mike,

Sorry for your bad experience.  But, aren't you glad that you are dealing with
Elecraft who will do a good job of responding to your problems.  Just think if
you had bought a THP or Ameritron Amp and had to deal with problems.

Hope to hear about the ultimate problem and fix.

I do think that Friday the 13th possibly
marked you with bad karma.

phil, K7PEH


On May 27, 2011, at 7:30 PM, ai6ii wrote:

> It is out of great frustration that I write this. What's up with Elecraft
> and the KPA500? I was so excited when KPA500 arrived May 11th. It was a
> culmination of six months of waiting and saving and finally it was here!
> Having previously built my K3, P3 and W2, this time I chose to get it
> factory built, mostly because I would be operational a month or two so
> sooner. BUT when I set it up everything worked great except for 20 meters.
> It failed to put out anything more than 270W on 14.MHz. I contacted Dale at
> Elecraft and we went through some 'over the phone' tests. He said he would
> need to talk with the engineers and called me back later in the day with
> more tests to run. Bottom line.it needed to be returned. He said it looked
> like a problem with the low pass filter. I boxed it up, paid USPS the $50 to
> send it back and waited. So far, okay, a little disappointing, but okay. I
> am not superstitions, but that was Friday 13th.
>
>
>
> So yesterday I received the KPA500 back with a letter explaining the low
> output on 14 MHz was due to three failed capacitors in the low pass filter.
> They were repaired and an upgrade/mod was also performed: "Front Panel VDD
> 5A Bypass Cap" (I haven't a clue what that means.) It had been bench tested
> for four hours and "KPA500 SN0026 meets or exceeds all factory
> specifications". Great. Good to go.
>
>
>
> And this is when it gets bad. I set all the cabling back up including the
> 1KW dummy load and turn the amp on..nothing. I check the rocker switch in
> back .nothing. Looking for troubleshooting info in the manual, I notice the
> instructions for setting up 115 vs. 220 voltage, and open the fuse box. Ah
> hah! No fuses .surprising because when I first got the amp it had fuses in
> place. There were a set of fuses included in the original packaging so I
> inserted them..turned it on.nothing.checked the fuses they were blown. And
> of course this is at 5:15 pm on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend. I
> though I would get a few hours of hamming in with the new amp. No such luck.
> I'll go get a couple more fuses tomorrow and try again, but I am not
> hopeful. I have to wait until Tuesday to call which means I have no one to
> talk to about this. That's why I am posting this hard luck story, out of
> frustration. This is one Elecraft enthusiast who is really bummed out. I
> hope you have better luck. I am surprised mine is so bad.
>
>
>
> ..mike AI6II
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
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> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html

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[wayne burdick]

> What's up with Elecraft and the KPA500...

Mike,

This is an very unusual experience, and I'd like to apologize on  
behalf of my staff. (It's hard to imagine we would have left the fuses  
out. Ouch.)

All new products go through a get-the-kinks-out period. I'm sorry you  
got caught in the middle of it!

Eric or Dale will be contacting you on Monday (if not sooner) to try  
to make up :)

73,
Wayne
N6K

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[Bob Naumann W5OV]

Phil,

As a THP dealer, I am very concerned about your comment:  

"Just think if you had bought a THP or Ameritron Amp and had to deal with
problems".

I am only aware of THP going out of their way to assist their customers as
much as possible through their dealers and through their paid
dealer-independent technical support staff here in the USA.

Granted, one of the dealers of THP is not known for hallmark customer
service, but the other one (mine) has taken care of customers of both
dealers in all cases in a way that is generally on par with what you and we
all expect from Elecraft and other reputable manufacturers/dealers. So, if
you have a beef with THP, I would like to hear about the facts.

As in this case, Elecraft should be notified of the problem and given the
opportunity to correct it. I see in subsequent emails they have responded
and will do whatever is necessary to correct this error.

That all said, we are all human and make mistakes sometimes. It seems that
ham radio manufacturers and dealers are consistently held to a much higher
standard than humanly possible.

73,

Bob W5OV
Array Solutions



-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email]
[mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Phil Hystad
Sent: Friday, May 27, 2011 9:58 PM
To: ai6ii
Cc: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] KPA500 problems

Mike,

Sorry for your bad experience.  But, aren't you glad that you are dealing
with
Elecraft who will do a good job of responding to your problems.  Just think
if
you had bought a THP or Ameritron Amp and had to deal with problems.

Hope to hear about the ultimate problem and fix.

I do think that Friday the 13th possibly
marked you with bad karma.

phil, K7PEH


On May 27, 2011, at 7:30 PM, ai6ii wrote:

> It is out of great frustration that I write this. What's up with Elecraft
> and the KPA500? I was so excited when KPA500 arrived May 11th. It was a
> culmination of six months of waiting and saving and finally it was here!
> Having previously built my K3, P3 and W2, this time I chose to get it
> factory built, mostly because I would be operational a month or two so
> sooner. BUT when I set it up everything worked great except for 20 meters.
> It failed to put out anything more than 270W on 14.MHz. I contacted Dale
at
> Elecraft and we went through some 'over the phone' tests. He said he would
> need to talk with the engineers and called me back later in the day with
> more tests to run. Bottom line.it needed to be returned. He said it looked
> like a problem with the low pass filter. I boxed it up, paid USPS the $50
to
> send it back and waited. So far, okay, a little disappointing, but okay. I
> am not superstitions, but that was Friday 13th.
>
>
>
> So yesterday I received the KPA500 back with a letter explaining the low
> output on 14 MHz was due to three failed capacitors in the low pass
filter.
> They were repaired and an upgrade/mod was also performed: "Front Panel VDD
> 5A Bypass Cap" (I haven't a clue what that means.) It had been bench
tested
> for four hours and "KPA500 SN0026 meets or exceeds all factory
> specifications". Great. Good to go.
>
>
>
> And this is when it gets bad. I set all the cabling back up including the
> 1KW dummy load and turn the amp on..nothing. I check the rocker switch in
> back .nothing. Looking for troubleshooting info in the manual, I notice
the
> instructions for setting up 115 vs. 220 voltage, and open the fuse box. Ah
> hah! No fuses .surprising because when I first got the amp it had fuses in
> place. There were a set of fuses included in the original packaging so I
> inserted them..turned it on.nothing.checked the fuses they were blown. And
> of course this is at 5:15 pm on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend. I
> though I would get a few hours of hamming in with the new amp. No such
luck.

> I'll go get a couple more fuses tomorrow and try again, but I am not
> hopeful. I have to wait until Tuesday to call which means I have no one to
> talk to about this. That's why I am posting this hard luck story, out of
> frustration. This is one Elecraft enthusiast who is really bummed out. I
> hope you have better luck. I am surprised mine is so bad.
>
>
>
> ..mike AI6II
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html

______________________________________________________________
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Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:[hidden email]

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Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html

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[Brian - K1NW]

Wayne - Great response - THIS is why I am glad I own an Elecraft product!