Re: using micro fan to keep K2 cool

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Re: using micro fan to keep K2 cool

dw-4
* How noisy is it ?

Yes, I thought about an external squirrel fan also to replace the
“little whizzer”
But I had this one in my box bin and decided to see how it worked.
The only way I notice its noise level, is if the room is really quite.
Noise was exactly the issue for my wife.
I have my radio desk in the living room at a computer desk.
My wife loves to read at night when she relaxes.
On my first qso with the k2, the “little whizzer” fan came on.
My wife turned to me and said “what in the world is all that noise!?”
So I knew I needed a solution.
The little micro fan running all the time, she doesn’t even notice.
It produces just a slight amount of cool air onto the heatsync, just
enough to keep the “little whizzer” from coming on, even through
full-power qso’s.
The heatsync is just slightly warm to touch.

* How cool do you want to keep the K2?
Grins :) . . . just cool enough to keep the “little whizzer” from
activating.
Keeping the k2 cool, keeps my wife cool ;^D

*
My K2/100 drifts about 70 Hz from a cold turn on in the mornings to
"ambiant."
Yes, I think my K2 drifts about 60 hz from startup to warm also.
I’ve fussed with the local osc to get it as close as I can.
When the unit is warm, I can tune in W1AW’s broadcast and zero beat
right on freq.
But on a cold start its about 60hz low.
Since the little micro cooling fan is on all the time, I would assume
heat deviation is less, at least within the mass of the top heatsync.

*
How are you feeding power to the fan?
I took a 47 ohm resistor and soldered it to a pad of one of the DC
filter caps which is on switched power line.  I ran heat shrink over the
wire, running it over the top of the relays and then to the back of the
unit, out to the fan.  The ground wire is soldered onto the main ground
lug of the power connector.  I used a resistor decade box to determine
the resistance.
So it only comes on when the unit is switched on.

*
Solder some wires to the terminals of D12 inside the K2 (the cathode is
positive 12 volts and turns off with the K2 switch).
Spoken from the man who knows his stuff!
I may end up changing my power-tap location to this diode.
I want to look at the schemo first.
Thanks Don!

*
Does this mean I no longer need the Dewar of liquid helium for cooling?
Save the helium for voice operation!!  :^]
--
 [hidden email]

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