Hi Leo and others,

Thanks for chiming in;

re: U800, Yes, definitely had that discussion in my head. I've heard it both ways on the U800 chip - sink and no sink. I know they get fairly warm, or at least mine does, because I checked it several years ago. At the time it seemed like a good candidate for a little heat sink, but I'm only guessing. I reckon I should relax and trust Tek on the airflow design.

re: "holes could make it worse". Yeah, I have some experience loading racks and racks of hot gear in a variety of settings and so I'm quite familiar with what you describe. (i.e. "chimney effect") Although I didn't build such a problem into my setup, I think I may just let the 2445b cooling ride as is for now while I work on replacing the nasty burned up RIFA caps and cleaning up the mess I know it left inside. That's a "for sure" problem.

In any case, after today I have a lot more things to fix on my bench now. The 2445b stink bomb, and replacing that oil-filled cap that gave up the ghost in my Sola constant voltage transformer today. Then about ten other real work projects that need my attention.

Oh well, that's why I have a fancy new electronics bench! :-)

Keith