I have been a ham for over 50 years and done lots of dumb things. Really dumb. Today was no different. I was putting a recently acquired K1 through the paces and getting it ready for another of my trips to the bush.
I had just worked several stations with a output of between 5 and watts with the K2 and my vertical. After this I was switching to different radios and antennas and checking power out and using a AIM 4710 to check the "health" of my antennas and decided to go back and enjoy the K1. I called CQ a couple of times and K7FB, near Dallas, TX, answered me. He was really weak but I could copy him as a 429 and sent that report. He sent me a 549 and after this exchange, he sent "no copy". I sat there and wondered what happened since I was still copying him at about a 429. So, I glanced down at the K1 and saw my output had dropped to 3W. I also was wondering why the band noise had dropped off since we have a pretty good weather system coming in from the west and was getting some QRN. Well, as I was logging the contact after signing off, I started to wonder why my ouput had dropped since I had just set it to 5W. I checked the menu item and set the power out to 7 watts and was just seeing 3 bars for power output on the K1. As I thought about getting my LP-100A hooked up to the K1, I looked and saw I had been transmitting into 6 feet of RG-59 hooked up to an antenna switch --- nothing else. Yep, stupid. But, then it was one of those things that keeps my interest in ham radio -- the magic of it all. And, a lot of credit goes to the "ears" on that K1 and some of the other kind of magic called propagation nuance. I just wanted to share this with some folks who would understand that find of fun and appreciate the dumb and crazy things a ham does when he has too many radios, switches and runs of coax. I shared it with my wife, but she simply shrugged her shoulders. Anyway, I wish you all a great holiday season and a fine and healthy New Year. 73/72 Greg K2UM ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html