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

[Iain MacDonnell - N6ML]

Ed Muns wrote:
>> 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.

Ditto - I ran two K3s at 100W for the NAQP RTTY contest a couple of
weeks ago, and was (pleasantly) surprised by how cool they remained.

     ~Iain / N6ML