Great idea Steve,
I work on 24vdc computer equipment have
plenty to try.
Thanks,
Jack Kovar
K0VAR
On Tue, 21 Jan 1997, Steve Ellington wrote:
> I had some questions about putting a fan in the Omni-6.
>
> First: Excuse me TenTec but I feel that the cooling is just a tad
> indaquate in this outstanding rig. After a long cw qso at full power,
> heat seems to conduct from the finals to the inside and raise the
> temperature. There's probably no harm in this except for a little drift
> of the oscillators on the tx/audio board, especially the bfo.
>
> Let me say also that the lack of a cooling fan is a refreshing breeze.
> Pun intended. Even the smallest (IC-706) import rigs have noisey little
> fans whirring away to keep their little finals cool. TenTec's big heat
> sink really does the job. The problem is just one of adaquate venilation
> for the insides.
>
> My fist thought was to just leave the lid off. Doing this worked great
> and virtually eliminated the bfo drift over long periods but it looked
> kinda red-neckish. I considered cutting a huge chunk out of the lid and
> replacing it with screen mesh (which is really what it needs) much like
> the old Drake equipment. Not being a machinist, I gave up on that idea.
> Perhaps some of you may consider it. Order a new lid from the factory
> first just in case you decide to sell the radio someday.
>
> I began the search for a quite fan. None filled the bill. Even the
> smallest ones were quite audible. I tried putting a resistor in series
> with a few of them. Running a 12vdc fan at 6vdc really made them quite
> but they were reluctant to start up at that voltage.
>
> I stumbled upon a junked out Hewlett Packard laser printer at work which
> had a 24vdc fan. Applying 12vdc, I was amazed how well it started up and
> how quite it was. I removed the aluminum bracket from the Omni-6,
> removed the little speaker (which I never used anyway), broke off the
> studs, drilled a couple of holes and mounted the fan in the speaker
> hole. 12v was easily obtained from the final's power lead. The air
> exhaust through the speaker grill. The fan was virtually inaudible and
> just a faint whisp of air emmits from the speaker grill. Inside, the rig
> stayed perfectly cool even under the heavist operation. BFO drift was
> eliminated.
>
> I ordered a replacement bracket from TT just in case.....
>
> N4LQ STEVE
>
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