Just wondering, I want to fill a couple of my amps with some flowable silicone to keep the water out, but I can't find much info on the RF properties of it, anyone have an idea?
Bossman
01-28-2003, 09:15 PM
I wouldn't worry about the RF properties as much as the insulating properties.
Logic would make us think (well my logic... so make me think :P ) that the RF is traveling through the antenna/radio ports so that woudn't matter. Most have steel cases anyhow which should stop the RF.
My concern would be with cooking the amp because it couldn't cool itself if the silicone was insulating the components.
my 2 cents
I put a good sized drop of it on a styrofoam plate, and put it on a cup in the microwave, it didn't start getting warm until it'd been in there at least 3 mins, so I figured it was farily safe. Just to make sure I coated a took an RF sweep of a rubber ducky, then coated it with the silicone and took another sweep, they looked identical, so I went ahead and dumped a few tubes of it in one of my amps. I gave it a few hours to set up, it doesn't appear that it will ever completely dry, so I hooked some juice to it, the amp seemed to work fine, so I filled it the rest of the way and put the cover back on. I'm waiting until tomorrow to power it back up. I don't think the insulating properties will be too big of a deal, I believe it transfers heat better than air, and with it being in substantial contact with both the IC's and the case, I think it might actually help things out. Hopefully all will be well, it's going in the air tomorrow.
Thanks,
Daniel