[Elecraft] Fan question on K3

[Gary Smith]

To adjust for a specific fan speed, this 
is as written in the manual:

------
Fan Speed

The K3S/100 includes two large, quiet 
fans. Fan speeds are normally selected 
automatically, but you can manually select 
a minimum fan speed if desired. See the 
CONFIG:KPA3 menu entry.
--------

I never have found the K3 to get hot, 
ever. Nothing like the hot my old Drake 
TR-7 used to get.

That said, I'm a bugger for driving with 
low power so I often have the amp on in 
case there's some DX I want to go for and 
don't want to wait for the warm up period. 
So I'll set the drive from the K3 (& now 
the K3s), at 2-5 watts or so and with the 
amp being QSK, it works perfectly and if I 
want to go QRP, I'm already there.

I could just drive the radio at 100W which 
is what most of us do but I like doing it 
this way. Besides, I don't like turning 
the amp on & off multiple times throughout 
the day, I understand that isn't nice to 
the tubes over the course of years. So 
this way I have a cool rig, no issues with 
distortion, and the amp is always ready to 
go. Only downside is a higher noise level 
in the shack but to that end, I almost 
always wear the Bose QC-15 and they make 
the noise go away.

73,

Gary
KA1J