[Elecraft] LED bulbs

[Dave Olean]

I am using my KPA500 while running on batteries. Sounds weird but true. The 
KPA500 is quite efficient although it is always drawing some current even 
when turned off. I can see that slight drain on my DC ammeters. In receive, 
there is little current drain. Of course, when I start sending CW I see the 
ammeter go up to about 70 amps. (Not a peak reading ammeter either!). My 
battery bank is a pair of 275 AH solar AGM type 12 volt batteries. The 
charging circuit is a couple of 220 watt solar panels. I use a pure sine 
wave inverter that is pretty noiseless.  (Xantrex Pro Sine 1800 W) During 
the day when the Sun is out, the batteries charge up during the receive 
cycle, so I don't deplete the batteries at all. At night I can go for many 
hours and have never gotten close to even a 50% discharge. In short, the 
K3/KPA500 combo is very efficient. I could not do that with my big tube 
amps! The filaments and blowers would kill the batteries before I even got 
the HV turned on!

Dave K1WHS

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Marc Veeneman" <mhvnmn at gmail.com>
To: "Wayne Burdick" <n6kr at elecraft.com>
Cc: "Elecraft List" <elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2015 3:25 PM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] LED bulbs


> Not everyone can turn a QRP LED discussion into a KPA500 pitch with power 
> plants as the bridge.
> -- 
> Marc
>
>> On May 12, 2015, at 10:33 AM, Wayne Burdick <n6kr at elecraft.com> wrote:
>>
>> LED bulbs are optical QRP, so not O.T. :)
>>
>>  If everyone swapped in LEDs over the next few years, we'd probably 
>> eliminate the need for any new power plants.
>>
>> Even if we all started using KPA500s.
>>
>> 73,
>> Wayne
>> N6KR
>>
>>
>>> On May 12, 2015, at 6:18 AM, Marc Veeneman <mhvnmn at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> I don't think I've saved much money, though.  The reduced electrical 
>>> demand won't justify the high cost of the modern day wonder -- LED 
>>> lighting.
>>> -- 
>>> Marc W8SDG
>>>
>>> _
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