[Elecraft] Suggested Enhancement for KPA-1500

[Jim Brown]

On 3/12/2021 6:33 AM, Fred Kemmerer wrote:
> I do something similar here. The problem is that it's easy to forget that you have increased the fan speed during long idle periods when you are not in the same room as the amplifier. This results in unnecessary wear on the fans.

My neighbor K6XX is the mfg engineer for Elecraft amps. This summer, Bob 
lost his home and large contesting station to a wildfire, and borrowed 
my KPA1500 for a weekend contest. When he returned it, he noted that one 
of my fans had excessive wear and was jammed with dust. Since I use the 
amp a lot on 6M with digital modes, it can run really hot, especially 
with long MS QSOs, so I did what you did -- setting the fan speed very 
high from the start. Bob advised me to set the default speed to zero and 
let the amp speed it up as required. I've since been doing that, and 
while the temp gets up to 90C, the amp seems happy.

6M is the most challenging for this amp because the devices are least 
efficient, so I limit my power to about 1kW on 6M using long intervals 
(like Q65-60 or -120).

73, Jim K9YC