This is a follow-up to a post about two months ago. I'm still getting pretty high heat on my K2 when running digital modes such as PSK, Olivia, etc. Per the recommendation of Don and a few others, I'm adjusting the K2 so that my desired power output is set on the Power control (25 watts), and then I'm setting my input gain (using a Signalink) so that (a) I do not exceed that power on the display and (b) I have one bar on the ALC.
Despite that, the K2 heats up rapidly. After one or two transmissions of 2-3 minutes each, the K2's fan will stay on high speed for all transmissions and the top of the K2 is hot to the touch. As it heats up, people notice drift of +/- 20 Hz (on 20 meters) as the rig warms up during transmit, even with the fan kicking in. The K2 does cool down on long receives, which indicates that the fan is having some impact, but obviously not enough. For now I have aimed a desk fan at the K2 when operating digital and it has reduced the heat and the drift. Is all this normal for digital on the K2? Are there things I should be looking at that might perhaps be indicating a problem in my build? My FT-897, for comparison, does not have any noticeable heat spots even after long digital transmits of 20 minutes or so (at 25 watts). Also, on the FT-897 I can get the ALC down below one bar while still keeping it at 25 watts; on the K2 I can never get it below 1-2 bars of ALC. Note to others -- if you're going to aim a desk fan at the K2, make sure that you dust first. It may take a couple of days for me to get all the dust out of my mouth from when I first turned on the fan. Jon KB1QBZ ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
