I lived in a coastal canyon for many years. Right after I got my ticket,
I amassed the typical 'impossible dream of electronic childhood' - a nice
Collins S-Line set-up.
Before I had any antenna smarts, I stretched an enormous long-wire down
to one end of my property, very nearly 500 feet of copper. And, I end-fed
it, with coax. (Well, I used RG8 - what could go wrong???) No
counterpoise, no grounds (three-story house perched on a 50-degree slope).
This mess was matched to the transmitter with a horrible home-brew tuner
I got at a ham-fest - a huge butterfly variable cap and a 4-inch tapped
coil and switch on an open aluminum chassis.
One afternoon, I tuned 'er up, made a few contacts, chewed a rag or two
- then it was Dinner Time. After relaxing a bit, I returned to the shack
to see what Night would bring.... one of the things Night brought was a
15-degree drop in outside temperature. And the 500 feet of copper reacted
accordingly.
I had a footswitch attached to the PTT line, and, after checking that
the transmitter was still in tune, listened for a bit and called CQ - got
a station right back.
When it was again my turn, I hit the footswitch and leaned into the
microphone, whereupon a nice fat little 1-inch RF arc leapt from the mic
to the side of my lip. Seems a voltage node had 'backed' back into the
shack with the change in length/tuning...
"Okay, Station X, FB on the..." zzzZZAAp! "*&{}#&*$*!!!$*(*...@~!!!!"
What I screamed into the open mike cannot be reproduced here, and
certainly has no place on the ham bands... HIHI!!
For months after that I cringed every time I opened the mailbox,
expecting a nice little note from the FCC inviting me to explain myself...
but, I'm still here, as is my ticket.
Someday I'll tell the story of the 300-watt guitar amp and the metal
screwdriver... it went to 11, alright...
Cheers
John KB6SCO
DM09fg
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