[Elecraft] KPA500 troubles

[Eric Swartz - WA6HHQ, Elecraft]

Hi Jack,

I apologize for any consternation this has caused you. 

Since multiple components burned through the LPF  PC board, that is major damage and would require replacement of the whole LPF board, which is a major cost component of the amp. (Taking out this board and replacing it requires disassembly and reassembly of a major portion off the amp.)  The repair cost also includes the tech time to diagnose, disassemble, repair, reassemble, retest and do full production TX burn-in of the amp on all bands.

Component failure like this can occur in any manufacturer's radio or amplifier for many reasons, such as power line surges, nearby lightning strikes, operating with excessive SWR, transmitting into a wrong antenna etc. You do not need to be operating on a particular band, or even have the amp or radio on to incur lightning damage. This can also cause partial damage to components that then shows up as a failure later after additional operation. 

As a side note, every year during lightning season we see a significant increase in all sorts of 'interesting' repairs sent in to us on all of our products. Many times the user is not even aware that a strike occurred somewhere nearby while they still had their antennas connected.

I'll review your repair report with our techs to make sure we didn't over charge for anything. I'll also check to see if they mis-identified which band the destroyed LPF components were from.

73,
Eric
elecraft.com
_..._

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Elecraft
> [mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On
> Behalf Of w4grj
> Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2015 7:14 AM
> To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] KPA500 troubles
> 
> I need to correct the information on the repair
> cost
> 
> It was $615 with shipping not $650 as I previously
> reported.
> 
> Jack W4GRJ
> 
>> On Wed,11/11/2015 12:10 PM, W4GRJ wrote:
>> Got the KPA500 back from Elecraft.
>> Problem found: L22 and other components in the
> 60M low pass filter 
>> circuit burnt through the LPF PCB.
>