> Someday I'll tell the story of the 300-watt guitar amp and the metal > screwdriver... it went to 11, alright...
Listen to the substain, man... Steve WD8DAS [email protected] http://www.wd8das.net/ ----------------------------------------------------- Radio is your best entertainment value. ----------------------------------------------------- -----Original Message----- From: John Lawson <[email protected]> To: Discussion of AM Radio in the Amateur Service <[email protected]> Sent: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 10:53 pm Subject: [AMRadio] Shocking Stories (was: amazed...) 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 ______________________________________________________________ Our Main Website: http://www.amfone.net AMRadio mailing list Searchable Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ List Rules (must read!): http://w5ami.net/amradiofaq.html List Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/amradio Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.html Post: mailto:[email protected] To unsubscribe, send an email to [email protected] with the word unsubscribe in the message body. ______________________________________________________________ Our Main Website: http://www.amfone.net AMRadio mailing list Searchable Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ List Rules (must read!): http://w5ami.net/amradiofaq.html List Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/amradio Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.html Post: mailto:[email protected] To unsubscribe, send an email to [email protected] with the word unsubscribe in the message body.
