[Elecraft] KPA1500 Fan Noise

[Dauer, Edward]

I have been following this thread with interest because I have a KPA1500 on order, and I have very limited flexibility as to where the RF deck can go compared to where I will have to sit.

Don's video was very well done and a great help in understanding the realities.

I know zero about thermodynamics, and so wanted only to say thanks to everyone who is contributing ideas, and to make but two comments.    

First, as to water cooling, I suspect it would be a huge weight penalty to get the cooling fluid everywhere it needs to be.  So far as I know there is only one reciprocating engine made for aircraft that has a water jacket.  (There might be others nowadays - I haven't owned an airplane for some years.)  The reasons others don't are reliability, safety, complexity, and - mostly - weight.  Second, isn't this largely a contest-operating issue?   I believe we are still governed by the rule that we may use only that amount of power necessary for the communication.    I contest too, so I'll face the problem on those occasions, but not for casual ragchews.  I plan to make some graphs of when in terms of time, power, mode and band the fans on mine kick up a notch, and use it as a general operating guideline if I need to.

Ted, KN1CBR



Date: Sat, 2 Jun 2018 08:48:46 -0600
    From: Don Butler <n5lz at comcast.net>
    To: Paul Baldock <paul at paulbaldock.com>, 	"Elecraft at mailman.qth.net"
    	<Elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
    Subject: Re: [Elecraft] KPA1500 Fan Noise Video posted
    Message-ID: <mailman.7833.1527966108.9989.elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
    Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
    
    Paul ?. The PS noise is minimal from my point of view.  The power supply fans do run continuously while the amp is switched on ?. You can hear the PS fans at the beginning and end of the video when the fan speed is set at ?0? .. all you?re hearing at that time is the PS fan ? at power down right at the end you can hear when the PS fans stop.
    
    Don, N5LZ