[Premium-Rx] Collins HF-2050 power supply heat thoughts

[w3jn at verizon.net]

 Spencer, my 2050 PS runs warm but the actual problem was the large chip in the middle of the top board - perhaps a DSP or CPU, I can't remember.  A very small fan mounted to the cover, over that chip, solved the issue.  The PS still runs quite warm but the radio works fine for hours.  My cover is in contact with the PS, if that matters.
73, John
    On Sunday, July 13, 2025 at 01:32:11 AM EDT, spencer bahner via Premium-Rx <premium-rx at mailman.qth.net> wrote:   

 A question for the group: somewhere among the various emails here or somewhere else, I saw mention that the Collins 2050 power supply heat issue was actually the result of the top cover not being fully in contact over the length of the power supply. The message was essentially that the receiver ran hot if the two pieces were in contact but not too hot for reasonably reliable operation. The posting said that the cover was designed by Collins as a part of the heat sink for the power supply and that not having the two in good mechanical contact was part of the heating problem. And I know people add fans and have tried other things to reduce the operating temperature of the power supply and I've paid attention to those ideas but what I read about the "Collins design" was new to me.

So this made me think of how Motorola manages heat in some of their newer radios. They use an elastic thermal pad material to couple heat away from power amp components. The thermal pads are sandwiched between the chassis of the radio and heat generating components and conform to the surfaces. They replace the use of thermal grease and are pretty good at coupling heat away from the PA components.

So my question is this: would it make sense that this material might help these receivers run cooler? It is readily available for Digikey, Mouser, and even Amazon and would seemingly fill the gap between the cover and the power supply. Just curious if anyone has done this in this application and if it helped?

Spencer Bahner

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