[Elecraft] Equipment Storage and operation

[Dean L]

I'm gonna jump on this before Eric pulls the plug and takes US to the
woodshed.

I have had a rig(s) of some sort in my vehicles over the past 38 years
driving, in the central Adirondack mts of NY.
Today I used a laser thermometer it was 145 on my dash.
I have a pic of my car thermometer last February it was minus 40f.

If anyone wants to see pix email me offline.

I ran all day FYBO contest at -17f with my kx3, look at my QRZ page.
Stop the fussing and get on the air!!!

I think I made it under the wire.

73
Dean K2WW


On Thu, Jul 5, 2018, 22:38 Michael Walker <va3mw at portcredit.net> wrote:

> Just to expand on this and share my experiences.
>
> I have been running a remote station in Ontario for 15 years.  The building
> is not heated or cooled at all.
>
> It has seen from 100F down to -20F without issue.  The radios have been
> Kenwood TS480 to a Flex 6300 and during the time, the amps were either an
> SGC500 or a KPA500.  The TS480 and the KPA500 come right online from the
> coldest days possible.  One day it took 10 minutes of full power RTTY to
> get the amp temp to read above 0C (32F).  That is how cold it was.
>
> The Flex 6300 is only engineered to 0F for the FPGA as it is not cold
> temperature hardened.  My solution to that is that I don't turn off the
> Flex all winter as the FPGA generates enough heat (about 5 watts) to keep
> itself warm.
>
> The humidity ranges from 20% to 100% and it can change from that in weeks
> if not days.  That past week it has been mid 90's and about the same in
> humidity.
>
> I have a few tower control boxes and for the most part, they are open at
> the bottom to let any moisture drain out should it happen to get inside as
> I have given up on total box waterproofing.  I have seen too many equipment
> boxes flooded, so 1/16" holes seem to solve that.  Fresh water does not
> hurt most electronics.  Yes, those in Salt Water areas have bigger
> problems.
>
> I've taken a KX2 out of a car that was at -20C and used it (yes, the LCD
> was slow).  That same KX2 has been taken from its pelican case at +35C and
> used it.  It might have been a bit off frequency but I had no way of
> telling or hearing if it actually was.
>
> I have yet to have an issue in the past 15 years that I can relate to being
> in a non-environmentally controlled room.
>
> The same is true for our cars that see the same temperature extremes
> without issues (other than car batteries that fail).    I take that back.
> On one car, my XM radio antenna would fail if it got too cold.  Welcome to
> the Great White North!
>
> The short story is, the electronics we use today are well engineered and
> can handle temperature extremes and with a bit of ventilation help, they
> should work just fine.
>
> Mike va3mw
>
>
>
> On Thu, Jul 5, 2018 at 7:04 PM, <ktalbott at gamewood.net> wrote:
>
> > We engineered electronics packages for these types of environment, from
> > desert to arctic.  Keys for success:
> > 1- Inside of housing must be designed to route any condensation away from
> > the electronics.  Design ENCOURAGES condensation on normally cooler
> > enclosure surfaces, not the electronics.
> > 2- A compartment heater (actually a high wattage, low value resistor) is
> > ALWAYS energized to keep interior air temperature and temperature of
> > electronic assemblies slightly above exterior.
> > 3- Compartment must be absolutely air tight so as not to allow breathing
> as
> > atmospheric pressure changes.
> > Condensation that occurs collects on housing and drains to bottom of
> > enclosure.  If cooling is required, it must be done with heat exchanger
> to
> > avoid ingress of outside air.
> > BTW, mission critical equipment was housed in nitrogen purged
> compartments,
> > including conduit which is major source of humid air flow!  We required
> > that
> > equipment stored during construction must have compartment heaters
> > energized.
> > So, it can be done.
> > Ken ke4rg
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net <elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net
> >
> > On
> > Behalf Of Dave Sublette
> > Sent: Thursday, July 5, 2018 8:38 AM
> > To: Elecraft Discussion List <elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
> > Subject: [Elecraft] Equipment Storage and operation
> >
> > I should start with an apology to the group.  Although I stand by what I
> > said in a previous post, I feel that the way I expressed myself was in
> > violation of decorum standards for this group.  I am sorry for that.
> >
> > <snip>
> >
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