I have certainly been surprised by folks who say they cannot hear their fans. I can (although they rarely come on) and I even had Gary send some replacement units, but when I changed them over the improvement was not great. I've checked all likely reasons, it's not the sound of a fan touching something. I wonder how genuinely quiet some people's shacks are. If I had a Windows desktop PC on the desk alongside I'm certain I'd never hear them, similarly if I had an amp running, or any other of the constant sounds you just get used to until hit by the sudden quiet of a power cut!
To put things in perspective, the K3 fans are excellent compared with the IC706 or IC7000 for example, where their noisy fans even cut in on receive! So, it's all relative I suppose. These days I almost always use open headphones (Sennheiser HD590) so it's not really an issue- I can just detect the fans turning on whilst wearing them. On a different note, closed headphones (unless I'm on a plane) I find claustrophobic, as if I have cut myself off from the rest of the world! 73 Stephen G4SJP K3 #980 K2, KX-1 On 09/12/2008 18:27, "W7TEA" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > When I received my factory built K3 last spring (#1001) I thought > the fans were louder than I expected after reading about folks > who had to physically check to see if there fans were on. I could > hear the fans start up through my headphones when PA temp hit 37C. > I sent the rig back and the good folks traded out a few other fan modules > and reported that the noise level was the same and appropriate. > > I inquired about Elecraft changing fan suppliers. They said that had > happened, but the new supplier's fans were as quiet. > > So, I believe there are a variety of experiences. My fans are not whisper > quiet, but maybe I, too, have been spoiled by my TT rigs with external > cooling fins and no fans. > > Gary W7TEA > > > I was trying to ferret out some weak signals on 160m when > the cooling fans switched on, making it very hard > to hear over the "whine" of the fans (or fan) even through > the padding on my headphones. > > Has anyone tried to quiet them down with vibration > isolators, etc? > > Charlie, N0TT _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [email protected] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
