[Elecraft] K3 Heat

[Guy Olinger, K2AV]

> Creative snipping, I'm going to do it too.
>
> I was talking about 80-year old radios, and keeping the radio running
> for that long. You're talking about 10, maybe?

Maybe not creative.  Maybe factual?

I have a 56 year old Collins 75A3. And a Johnson Ranger and Viking Courier 
just slightly younger, all working. I can assure you that any of them run 
half a day will be far warmer above and below the chassis than anywhere 
in/on my K3. There is no fan in a 75A3 or Ranger.  There is a fan in the 
Courier, but it blows the air off the 811's around inside the box, not 
immediately to the outside like the K3.  The heat melted a crayon on top of 
a friend's Collins and it dripped down on the chassis. He never got that out 
of the paint. Used to keep my coffee warm over the 6146's in the Ranger.

> I'm just saying, if you want fans, use fans. Let people mess with the
> radio if they want. That's why I liked the K2, and one of the reasons I
> don't have a K3 yet.

So you've never actually felt a K3 for heat and fan cooling air movement?

One of the great things about the newer transistor gear vs. the half century 
old 18 tube top of line stuff is how COOL (less heat) they are compared to 
the classic tube stuff.

My K2/10 gets warmer on the bottom than my K3 gets on the front right side. 
I did a full A to B upgrade on it recently and enjoyed every minute of it. 
But the K3 is telling me that I have to get VERY technical on really tiny 
stuff to mess with it and not make it worse.

We're not saying not to mess with a K3.  It's their property and they can do 
whatever. They can measure their K3's chassis strength by throwing it out of 
an airplane if they want.

Just pointing out that people are going after a heat problem that doesn't 
exist.  And in an era where Google searches fork up all text equally, if it 
isn't challenged here, folks just casually reading the reflector will accept 
that the K3 has a cooling problem, which it doesn't.

73, Guy.