[Elecraft] KPA-500 Reliability

[Jim Rogers]

My KPA-500 rests comfortably on top of my KAT-500 right beside my K3s 
and P3( and K3 held in reserve).  My modes of operation are principally 
digital, either meteor scatter, PSK31, RTTY, and WSJTx and its many 
variations. All of these are what I would term 100% duty cycle.  For 
meteor scatter I run the KPA500 at 350W usually and the transmission 
periods vary from 15 seconds to a full minute. I hear a few pings and 
creaks from the heatsink but only rarely do the fans get to mode 4 and 
when they do, it only lasts for 15 to 20 seconds after transmission 
ceases. On PSK31 and JT65(HF) the amplifier is not used as the rule of 
thumb is 25 to 30 Watts. On RTTY for short contest exchanges, the 
amplifier is run to its limit. The KPA-500 was purchased in April of 
2014 so it has seen some service, particularly on meteor scatter and 
ionospheric scatter. I do dumb things on occassion and the amp 
faithfully faults out and I realize what I have done.  I have owned many 
rigs and amps in my 62 years of ham radio and I personally rate my 
Elecraft station as superior to all the others, names withheld to 
protect the innocent.

Just my two cents.....
Jim, W4ATK
K(s)-Line, K2, K3 (might be interested in a K1 just to make the 
collection complete).