[Elecraft] KPA-1500 failed!

[john at kk9a.com]

Sorry to hear this happen Peter, especially during a contes. LDMOS devices
are suppose to be pretty tough and the KPA1500 is not pushing their limits.
There are videos of a different LDMOS showing it to be indestructible:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ziYqjMQGEQ  Is the KPA1500 cooling and heat
sink adequate?  Personally if I owned this amp I would leave the fan on at a
tolerable speed 100% of the time.  Did you use the amp during the RTTY
contest last weekend?

John KK9A


Paul Baldock wrote: 

It sounds like one of the output devices have failed. Half power out 
is usually the indicator. A number here have reported this happening. 
It would be nice to know why this problem is occurring and if 
Elecraft are working on a fix.

- Paul
>
>On 2/16/2019 7:28 AM, lists at w2irt.net wrote:
> > I was operating in the ARRL-CW contest this morning and on 20m, with a
> > 1.2:1 SWR on the Yagi, all of a sudden I saw my power drop to about
> > 450-500W with about 40W in. Worked a few stations but not as easily as
> > when I turned everything on this morning. Switched over to phone 
> and made a few contacts.
> > Audio is fine barefoot with 100W out of the K3s-which suffered blown
> > finals itself during CQWW SSB last fall, but with the amp in I got
> > reports that my audio was badly distorted.
> >
> > Before I send it in, is there anything I should look at or any
> > diagnostics I can easily perform? For the cost of this, I'd have
> > thought protection would have kicked in to prevent anything untoward
> > from happening. I'm in complete disbelief, to be honest.
> >
> > ---------------------------------------------
> > 73 and Good DX
> > Peter, W2IRT