[Elecraft] KAT500/F Missing thermal pad on R5

[Jim Sheldon]

My factory built KAT500 is missing the thermal conductive pad that is supposed to go between R5 and the bottom cover.  This was called to someone's attention at Elecraft when I had to disassemble my factory built KAT500 to correct another problem I ran into that didn't actually affect the operation of the tuner.

I asked if this would be a problem and I was told that it was being looked into.  I have not received an answer to that question and it's been about 2 weeks since I first asked it.  The tuner appears to be working all right without it, but I've seen references to the fact that R5 is called on to dissipate some pretty heavy power at times and I'd hate to have it fail because of this oversight.

Several others have noted missing pads in the kit versions as well and I would not have known it if I hadn't downloaded and read the latest manual.  The one I got with my early, factory built model (#37) did not have the kit building instructions in it, nor did it have a parts list.

Jim - W0EB