I too am annoyed by ambient noise, especially fans.. ALL fans make noise, some just less than others.. Once you have your other ambient noise sources quieted down enough in the shack then the 5K's fan is very noticeable. Here's my tale...
After building a new house and of course a new shack space (it uses up about 1/3 of the basement). One requirement was to make the new shack be as quiet as possible. And also to make the equipment be easily accessible, both front *and* back. So for the 16' long equipment wall I used shelving that attaches to a wall. But the "wall" that it is attached to is essentially just 2x6 studs that the shelf support rails are screwed into. The spaces between the studs is completely open for easy backside access to all of the equipment located on all the shelves. So to control the noise sources I hung sound barrier curtains about 2+ feet beyond the open equipment wall. That leaves a about a 2 foot wide alley to get access to the equipment backsides. So everything that makes noise goes on the other side of that sound barrier wall from the operating area on some rather industrial strength free standing shelves (4 levels 30"x72"). This shelf unit is perpendicular to the equipment/sound barrier walls, so it has both front and back side easy access as well. So basically all of the items that have fans in them, including the 5K is put on those shelves. So the "noisy" side of the sound barrier curtain I consider to be my "equipment room", it also has the furnace an few other household "equipment" in there as well. The KVM and various other control/support cables are then routed through the sound barrier wall to the monitors and all the other no-fan radios/equipment sitting on the shelves in the "operator's space". To further suppress sound in the equipment room I've hung some strategically placed sound absorbing panels to reduce the sound level that the barrier panels have to deal with. I still have some ways to go to further suppress the noise sources, but it is already pretty good. As I was increasing the level of sound suppression I'd find more and more items that I did not previously notice as being noise producers, and they soon became irritatingly obvious. The 5K was one of them, so it (along with its "blue death ray" LED) got banished to the "equipment room", I can now only hear its relays click as I change bands. The operator's space is now quiet enough that I now notice the white noise hiss from some of my powered speakers. Most of my linear power supplies are abundantly obvious sources of noise now too (still thinking about how those will get moved to the equipment room too). I'm even being irritated by one of the CCFL LCD monitor back-light ballasts in one of my monitors. I have two identical monitors, one makes very little noise, the other is a lot noisier... Maybe some LED back lit monitors will eventually fix that. Suppressing the other household noises is now increasingly front and center for what needs attention. Things like lagging the heating ducts and to do something more with the basement ceiling.. So I'm enjoying my fairly quiet shack. Reminds of my early days in ham radio when I didn't have much equipment at all, not to mention any equipment that could even make fan noise :).. Duane N9DG --- On Wed, 12/7/11, Burt <k1...@yahoo.com> wrote: I am not really concerned about a mike picking up the fan, I am concerned about me being bugged by it. I do not even like the fan on my computer. I never heard a fan on the 5000. It has a fan? _______________________________________________ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
