It is never a good thing to leave electronic equipment in hot, humid
conditions. Even those new fancy and expensive rigs hate those conditions.
The humidity can be absorbed into the pc board and cause sensitive circuits to
malfunction. Most IC's have a temperature and humidity range that they will
operate reliably within. We have left the days of those old tube radios that
would drive out humidity with the heat they generated, but we still had to
contend with electrolytics drying out as now.
I used to write test software for IC's before I retired. We tested all of the
IC's used in our production plant and did it in a temperature and humidity
controlled environment. Most of the pieces of equipment we use today have a
highly rated pedigree. We should treat it accordingly.
W5GHZ
________________________________
From: Charles Harpole <k4vud@hotmail.com>
To: amps@contesting.com
Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2012 2:23 PM
Subject: [Amps] 87a cured
For over 5 years, my Alpha has sat in the shack with high humidity and temps of
30-34C. During that time, it automatically went to Fault 9... and sometimes
Fault 20.... when tried to use. The "go to fault" was all over the map in
terms of when it would occur but it was usually early after turn on. The air
conditioner would be switched on in the shack only during operations.
My very smart friend worked on it several times, including replacing all those
expensive PIN diodes, but the problem reappeared soon after that.
On advice of several locals, I began recently to run my shack air conditioner
continuously at about 25C. and set to "Dry." After abt 40 hours, I tried the
87a. Perfect operation resulted with no other changes. It now drives, outputs
RF, and in all ways works as it should.
I guess it just likes cool and dry. Or the local spirits do. 73,
Charles Harpole k4vud@hotmail.com
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