[Test-Equipment] HP fans

[John Miles]

Try an HP8656A signal generator sometime... the fan sounds like it was made
by Boeing, and it runs even when the unit's turned off!

The thing to do is to look at the equipment's original environmental specs.
If you have an instrument with a loud fan, and the manual says the
instrument is rated for operation at 130 degrees F ambient, and you know
it'll never be hotter than 80F in your lab or ham shack, then by all means,
put a quieter fan in there.

On the other hand, if your gear is already running hot with the stock fan,
you may want to leave it alone (or at least check the fan bearings for
noise).

-- jm

----- Original Message -----
From: "Gary Chatters" <gc@Radix.Net>
To: <Test-Equipment@mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, January 14, 2002 2:10 PM
Subject: [Test-Equipment] HP fans


> As long as someone brought up the 5245L:  One of the problems with
> the older HP equipment and even some not so old equipment is the
> fan noise.  I would like to leave a frequency counter on for long
> periods of time, but it would be difficult to live with the noise.
>
> I am thinking of replacing the stock fan with a quieter muffin
> style fan.  Has anyone tried this and had any problems?
> Is there anything critical about the cooling?  My impression is
> that you just have to have some air movement.  But to be sure, one
> should check the internal temperature.
>
> Gary