[Elecraft] KPA500 problems

[Phil Hystad]

Mike,

Sorry for your bad experience.  But, aren't you glad that you are dealing with
Elecraft who will do a good job of responding to your problems.  Just think if
you had bought a THP or Ameritron Amp and had to deal with problems.

Hope to hear about the ultimate problem and fix.

I do think that Friday the 13th possibly
marked you with bad karma.

phil, K7PEH


On May 27, 2011, at 7:30 PM, ai6ii wrote:

> It is out of great frustration that I write this. What's up with Elecraft
> and the KPA500? I was so excited when KPA500 arrived May 11th. It was a
> culmination of six months of waiting and saving and finally it was here!
> Having previously built my K3, P3 and W2, this time I chose to get it
> factory built, mostly because I would be operational a month or two so
> sooner. BUT when I set it up everything worked great except for 20 meters.
> It failed to put out anything more than 270W on 14.MHz. I contacted Dale at
> Elecraft and we went through some 'over the phone' tests. He said he would
> need to talk with the engineers and called me back later in the day with
> more tests to run. Bottom line.it needed to be returned. He said it looked
> like a problem with the low pass filter. I boxed it up, paid USPS the $50 to
> send it back and waited. So far, okay, a little disappointing, but okay. I
> am not superstitions, but that was Friday 13th.
> 
> 
> 
> So yesterday I received the KPA500 back with a letter explaining the low
> output on 14 MHz was due to three failed capacitors in the low pass filter.
> They were repaired and an upgrade/mod was also performed: "Front Panel VDD
> 5A Bypass Cap" (I haven't a clue what that means.) It had been bench tested
> for four hours and "KPA500 SN0026 meets or exceeds all factory
> specifications". Great. Good to go.
> 
> 
> 
> And this is when it gets bad. I set all the cabling back up including the
> 1KW dummy load and turn the amp on..nothing. I check the rocker switch in
> back .nothing. Looking for troubleshooting info in the manual, I notice the
> instructions for setting up 115 vs. 220 voltage, and open the fuse box. Ah
> hah! No fuses .surprising because when I first got the amp it had fuses in
> place. There were a set of fuses included in the original packaging so I
> inserted them..turned it on.nothing.checked the fuses they were blown. And
> of course this is at 5:15 pm on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend. I
> though I would get a few hours of hamming in with the new amp. No such luck.
> I'll go get a couple more fuses tomorrow and try again, but I am not
> hopeful. I have to wait until Tuesday to call which means I have no one to
> talk to about this. That's why I am posting this hard luck story, out of
> frustration. This is one Elecraft enthusiast who is really bummed out. I
> hope you have better luck. I am surprised mine is so bad.
> 
> 
> 
> ..mike AI6II
> 
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