6300 fan noise - should I worry?

Ken Hansen

My Flex 6300 runs 24x7 to enable remote operation. The radio lives in a clean, but not temperature controlled, garage environment in Texas. I had no problems with heat in summer or cold this fall, but several days ago I noticed my radio was unavailable via SmartSDR/SSDR for iOS, so I checked out the radio in person at remote location. Problem: Powered up radio, green light flashed on and off, and then made a horrible racket. After about a minute, the radio 'clicked', then powered down. It did this several times over the next 15 minutes, never once staying 'on'. Since I didn't have proper tools at remote location, boxed up the radio and brought it home. Put radio on the bench, connected it to 13.8v, radio again turned on, but made loud fan noises... this time though it stayed on, the flashing green light stayed on, an the radio seemed fine. I opened the case to clean the fans, they were all clean. Hooked up power with the lid off, radio powered up and stayed up. Put cover back on the radio, pushed in the power switch, and the fans were quiet. Not silent, not clanging, but reasonably quiet and the radio came up and stayed up. Question: So my question: should I be worried about future fan failure? Could it be a thermal thing? The inside of the radio is pristine, so I don't think it's a dirty fan problem. Any ideas/advice? TIA, Ken, N2VIP

Bill -VA3WTB

Ross - K9COX

Good question, my 6500 is over 3 years old and shortly after I got it the fan made a terrible noise and the radio faulted out. After several power cycles it went away and has never returned.

Brian Morgan VK7RR

K5CG

Bill -VA3WTB

Al_NN4ZZ

Brian VK3MI