[Elecraft] K2 Glitch on Field Day

[Jay Schwisow]

Larry,

Seems strange that this came up after your rig was sitting but I will 
tell you about my experiences with a toasty PA........

I have not ever seen the message PA Hot but I certainly have noticed the 
PA getting hot and in a couple of instances cause the rig to shut 
down/reboot.  I operate alot of CW during contests and am constantly 
cqing and working stations.  I have a simple cure.  Using just a touch 
of double back tape I mounted a DC muffin fan on top of the PA (blowing 
air on to the PA).  Instead of wiring it directly to the K2 I just put 
it on a powerpole strip.

We had a 100 degree field day this year and the rig ran flawlessly.  All 
indications are that the this is cured on the K3.  It will have 2 nice 
size  variable fans.

Jay - KT5E

Wolfgang, Larry, WR1B wrote:
> I've seen a couple of posts about folks having some interesting
> "problems" with their K2s on Field Day. I also had an "event," and
> wonder if anyone else has seen this problem before.
>
> After operating most of Saturday afternoon, I turned off my K2/100
> around 6 to break for supper. Since my wife had invited her brothers and
> sisters for a picnic, it was around 8 when I turned my radio on again.
> When I transmitted to answer a CQ FD, I saw the display show "PA HOT"
> and no apparent output power. I cycled the radio off and on again, but
> got the same message when I tried to transmit. The correct antenna input
> was selected, but the KAT100 wouldn't tune. When I pressed the Tune
> button it just displayed 20 and 1:1. I tried both CW and SSB with the
> same result. I tried switching from 20 m to 40 m with the same result. I
> turned off the radio again and went to visit with my cousin and her
> husband for another hour or so. When I came back, I even tried
> connecting my ac power supply to see if the battery voltage was dropping
> too low for some reason. The PA HOT message came on each time I tried to
> transmit. Finally I tried reducing power to below 10 W. Now the tuner
> would work, and I could transmit, but going above 10 W gave the PA HOT
> message again. I finally brought the radio and tuner inside for the
> night and gave up.
>
> Sunday morning I set the radio up again, and this time everything was
> fine. No problems, full power, CW and SSB, everything worked fine for
> the rest of Field Day!
>
> Any ideas on what may have been going on? There were no storms, the air
> was dry, the temperature was a bit cool, dropping into the low 60s. For
> anyone who worked WB3IOS 1B EPA, thanks for the contact!
>
> 73, 
>
> Larry Wolfgang, WR1B 
>  
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