I agree with Ed's experience in a damp climate. One solution to venting an enclosure without letting in water or wildlife is a 'membrane vent' made from Gore-Tex material. These are available ready mounted in screw-in plugs (for example eBay item #252244715964).
73 from Ian GM3SEK >-----Original Message----- >From: Elecraft [mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of >Edward R Cole >Sent: 20 January 2016 08:29 >To: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net >Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Remoting KAT500 to base of antenna > >Fred, > >Your high desert climate will probably produce less condensation than >my sub-arctic/maritime environ. What I do for enclosures is to not >seal them airtight but provide good drain openings which air can >exchange. Of course the shelter is made to repel direct rain/snow. > >I suspected that my TR relays were "freezing up" at lower temps >making the action delayed so I used some big aluminum Dale resistor >strapped onto the relays to add direct heat by conduction. I happen >to have 28v equipment so used 28v thru the resistors to produce heat >within their wattage rating (used 40w resistors at both relays). Of >course this also provided some heating of the ambient air of the >enclosure which helped keep moisture from forming even in 90% >humidity of the fall. It rains 8-days with one day off from August >to October when temps finally drop below freezing and rain becomes >snow. You don't have anything near that. > >One thing I have noticed about drain holes in some equipment is they >are too small to allow water to drop free due to surface tension and >in my environ that results in the weep holes freezing tight. I drill >them out to 1/4 inch. Of course if you are prone to insect/archnid >invasion that is problematic. > >PS: I lived five years in the high Mojave Desert so know all about >"critters of the desert" (never stick your hand into a confined space >before kicking it to see what crawls out or "rattles"! > >73, Ed - KL7UW >------------------------------------------ ______________________________________________________________ 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 Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
