[Elecraft] KPA-1500 Fan Noise Update - Not Bad at all

[Richard Thorne]

As you know I was one of the concerned individuals about fan noise.

I went ahead and took delivery of the amp Friday and hooked it up this 
morning.

I have all of the equipment installed in a rack just to the right of my 
operating desk (updated pictures on qrz.com) within easy reach.

I went ahead and set the fan to position 2 and started calling cq on 10m 
RTTY at 1500 watts output (no answers unfortunately).  I kept this up 
for 15 minutes or so.  With the fan set to 2 the temp approached 60 
degrees.  I'm sure the amp will jump to fan 3 when I've operated RTTY 
for more than 15 minutes but I'm betting it doesn't stay at the setting 
for very long.

I need to set the fan back to setting 0 and do some testing to see when 
the fans start and at what temperature.  I need to do this in all 
modes.  I started with RTTY as that's the most demanding mode that I 
operate.

The fan noise at 2 is quite acceptable with no head phones on.

The power supply fan is very acceptable.  It sounds like a fan on a 
computer to me.  It doesn't have a high pitch wine to it.

Bottom line I'm glad I took delivery.  I still need to read the manual 
and setup the ATU but so far so good.  It's great having 1500 watts 
available if needed.

I plan on using the two Elecraft amps for SO2R.  Hopefully the setup 
will get a good work out during IARU next month.

Rich - N5ZC