[Elecraft] K3: Do you "Juice" your K3?

[Ed Muns]

> During the NAQP RTTY, at one point I was calling a solid 
> stream of CQ's at 100 watts output on RTTY and not getting 
> any replies. I was watching the PA Temp, and it climbed up to 
> 65C and looked like it wanted to keep rising pretty quickly. 
> I think hi temp shutdown is at 84C. I backed off on my CQ's 
> and used the other radio for a while. I had the fan speed 
> locked on step 4. All of this was at 13.8VDC. With any kind 
> of heavy duty usage, I don't think cranking up the voltage is 
> a good idea. A better idea is to buy an AL-1500 or similar 
> low drive amp, which will give you 1500 watts out with 50 
> watts of drive. NOW, we are talking "juice." ;)

This is interesting.  I run 100 watts output on RTTY, CQing and working
stations at a continual flow, and the fans hardly run at all.  The PA
temperature stays down.  I wonder if there is something unique going on with
your K3(s)?  One user found a fan wire impeding the blades of one of his
fans and even on CW, he had the same experience described above.

Ed - W0YK