PROs/CONs on KPA100
Locked
 
|
If you have the KPA100 option installed I would be interested in hearing
your take on it. I'm mainly interested in the things that you found out (good and otherwise) after you installed it as opposed to what you considered before buying it. Best regards, Darrell (Formerly KB9AV and working to get it back!) _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [hidden email] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com |
|
|
Built my KPA100 in 2002 and it's FB. Delivers >100 on 160 through 10
meters. It worked exactly as advertised and I expected. I chose the Elecraft K2 for fixed-station use so my KPA100 is built into the K2 as it was originally designed. Like the K2 itself it's had lots of heavy use with no problems. It went together easily and worked first time power was applied. Over the years I've kept mine current with the latest Elecraft updates even though it had no performance issues from the beginning. Ron AC7AC If you have the KPA100 option installed I would be interested in hearing your take on it. I'm mainly interested in the things that you found out (good and otherwise) after you installed it as opposed to what you considered before buying it. Best regards, Darrell (Formerly KB9AV and working to get it back!) _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [hidden email] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com |
|
|
In reply to this post by Darrell Snedecor
> If you have the KPA100 option installed I would be interested in hearing > your take on it. I'm mainly interested in the things that you found out > (good and otherwise) after you installed it as opposed to what you > considered before buying it. Biggest pro: the entire section remains disabled (no current drain) until required by dialing up the power potentiometer. Your QRP K2 stays just that until you choose to go over 12-ish watts. Biggest con: the fan. I find it loud and distracting, and even after the KPA100 cools down to threshold temperature, the fan remains on until an event such as transmittion of CW sig. This means if the fan kicks in during high power transmit, then you go back into receive mode to listen to the other station for a while, fan remains on (loudly) forever, and I deliberately have to send a CW dit to force it to (re-evaluate temp?) and turn itself off. This potentially confuses the op on the other end who thinks I'm trying to get his attention. If it doesnt' really work that way, please correct me, but that's been my experience. That said, it's a great module. There when I need it, disabled when I don't. I sold mine very recently after MUCH deliberation. Sad to see it go but I'm doing more QRP nowadays and trying to pare down. nv1b _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [hidden email] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com |
|
|
In reply to this post by Darrell Snedecor
G'day,
> Biggest con: the fan. I find it loud and distracting, and even > after the KPA100 cools down to threshold temperature, the fan > remains on until an event such as transmittion of CW sig. This > means if the fan kicks in during high power transmit, then you go > back into receive mode to listen to the other station for a while, > fan remains on (loudly) forever, and I deliberately have to send a > CW dit to force it to (re-evaluate temp?) and turn itself off. This > potentially confuses the op on the other end who thinks I'm > trying to get his attention. > > If it doesnt' really work that way, please correct me, but that's > been my > experience. Not how mine works, or as it is intended to work. This doesn't fit in with any fan mode offered in the menu. Noisy, yes, distracting, yes, however, when the heatsink cools to the threshold temp mine shuts off as described in the manual. External fans have been discussed at length for extended operation with the upside that the noisy little - your word(s) - doesn't even come on. Regards, Mike VP8NO _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [hidden email] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com |
Re: PROs/CONs on KPA100
|
|
Mike VP8NO wrote:
> Noisy, yes, distracting, yes, however, when the heatsink cools to the > threshold temp mine shuts off as described in the manual. External fans > have been discussed at length for extended operation with the upside that > the noisy little - your word(s) - doesn't even come on. -------------------------------------------------------- Is it possible that some are noisy little err things and some are not? I have mine running all the time at LO (very quiet) when my KPA100 is on, and so far it has not switched itself to HI (noisy) even during a contest. Shack ambient temperature is usually about 65 F. The heatsink gets warm but not hot. 73, Geoff GM4ESD _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [hidden email] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com |
|
|
In reply to this post by Darrell Snedecor
I built mine in early Dec 06. Worked fine the first time. I love the
way it integrates with the rig and it works just fine. The only disappointment is the fan. As others have said, it is noisy. I have a muffin fan that I set on top of the heat sink to keep the built-in whizzer fan from coming on. It works but it too generates a bit of low-level noise in the shack. Knowing what I now know, yes, I'd buy it again. CW at 12 watts is fun but sometimes that extra 80 watts makes the difference. - Keith N1AS - - K2 5411.ssb.100 - -----Original Message----- If you have the KPA100 option installed I would be interested in hearing your take on it. I'm mainly interested in the things that you found out (good and otherwise) after you installed it as opposed to what you considered before buying it. _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [hidden email] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com |
|
|
On January 22, 2007 12:29 pm, Darwin, Keith wrote:
> The only disappointment is the fan. As others have said, it is noisy. >From what I understand, one of the reasons for the fan is to keep the K2 RF, front panel, and control board components at a fairly constant temperature to reduce drift, etc. If the KPA100 is mounted in a separate EC2 cabinet, would the need for a fan be eliminated? What about if the KPA100 shares an EC2 with a KAT100? Or could a larger heat sink be substituted? -- Darrell Bellerive Amateur Radio Stations VA7TO and VE7CLA Grand Forks, British Columbia, Canada _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [hidden email] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com |
|
|
I don't think this is true. Before the KPA100, my K2 had no fan. Front
panel & control board ran with no cooling support and drift was never an issue. I run the KPA100 with an external fan which keeps the hovercraft wizzer on the back of the rig from coming to life. Again, the front panel and control board operate with no cooling. - Keith N1AS - - K2 5411.ssb.100 - -----Original Message----- From: Darrell Bellerive >From what I understand, one of the reasons for the fan is to keep the K2 RF, front panel, and control board components at a fairly constant temperature to reduce drift, etc. _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [hidden email] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com |
|
|
There is a fan accessory from Ten Tec for the Orion that
is mounted on a metal bracket. It fits very nicely onto the KPA100 heatsink and is pretty quiet. You can even put a resistor in the line and drop the voltage from 12V to 5-7 V to cut down the RPM and make it almost dead quiet while still providing additional cooling at the heatsink. Lets go even better for those who like to experiment....You can put together a simple but effective water cooling system such as what is used for computer CPUs. Cut away the fins on the heatsink above where the finals are and mount a waterblock to the heatsink above the finals. This will draw the heat to the liquid that goes to a small radiator for cooling. A small pump keeps the system circulating. This should keep the small fan from having to come on at all. While this is a spur of the moment idea.....it seems like it should work....and well enough that you should be able to run digital modes without reduced power. Has anyone tried something like this? GL Greg AB7R On Tue, 23 Jan 2007 12:01:04 -0500 "Darwin, Keith" <[hidden email]> wrote: > I don't think this is true. Before the KPA100, my K2 >had no fan. Front > panel & control board ran with no cooling support and >drift was never an > issue. > > I run the KPA100 with an external fan which keeps the >hovercraft wizzer > on the back of the rig from coming to life. Again, the >front panel and > control board operate with no cooling. > > > - Keith N1AS - > - K2 5411.ssb.100 - > > -----Original Message----- >From: Darrell Bellerive > >>From what I understand, one of the reasons for the fan is >>to keep the K2 > RF, front panel, and control board components at a >fairly constant > temperature to reduce drift, etc. > _______________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Post to: [hidden email] > You must be a subscriber to post to the list. > Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): > http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm > Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [hidden email] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com |
|
|
Amateur astronomers use Peltier devices to cool the CCD on their
astrocameras. The Peltier unit cools and circulating water/alcohol removes the heat. Without cutting a fin, aquarium tubing could be woven through the fins circulating cool liquid via a small pump system. These systems are small and are DIY. Then there is always liquid nitrogen. <g> 73 Gil NN4CW K2#3104 _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [hidden email] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com |
|
|
>>"Then there is always liquid nitrogen. <g>
Better check the temp specs on the finals -- might be TOO cold. Mark On 1/23/07, Gil Stacy <[hidden email]> wrote: > Amateur astronomers use Peltier devices to cool the CCD on their > astrocameras. The Peltier unit cools and circulating water/alcohol removes > the heat. Without cutting a fin, aquarium tubing could be woven through the > fins circulating cool liquid via a small pump system. These systems are > small and are DIY. Then there is always liquid nitrogen. <g> > 73 Gil NN4CW > K2#3104 > _______________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Post to: [hidden email] > You must be a subscriber to post to the list. > Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): > http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm > Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com > Elecraft mailing list Post to: [hidden email] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com |
|
|
In reply to this post by Darrell Snedecor
On Jan 21, 2007, at 3:18 PM, Darrell Snedecor wrote: > If you have the KPA100 option installed I would be interested in > hearing > your take on it. I'm mainly interested in the things that you > found out > (good and otherwise) after you installed it as opposed to what you > considered before buying it. I have the KPA100. I was surprised at how easy it was to build. It went together relatively quickly, and it worked the first time. I've run the KPA100 really hard for SSB and CW contests at 100 watts. It gets quite warm, but works effectively. On 160m, it tends to draw a bit too much current from my power supply, so I'll back down to 85-90 watts. One disappointment is that the KPA100 isn't designed for 100% duty cycle. On RTTY contests, I can only run 20-30 watts without overheating the PA. I've added a supplemental cooling fan that sits on top of the KPA100 right between the transistors. With this, I can run 50 watts without problems. Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASEL Mail: [hidden email] Quote: "Not within a thousand years will man ever fly!" -- Wilbur Wright, 1901 _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [hidden email] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com |
«
Return to Elecraft
|
1 view|%1 views
| Free forum by Nabble | Edit this page |