Have you ever felt like you went through a wringer? Maybe I should amend
that question to " Remember the last time you went though a wringer? "
Well I am about to tear out what is left of my hair, as nothing has gone
well here for last day or so. It all started last night with a 222 EME
sked with PJ4MM. I heard him the day before getting three decodes right
at my Moonset. The Moon in Bonaire was still up about 8 degrees at the
time. So I figured that there was a chance that we could complete a
contact. In the middle of the next sked, last evening, the transmitter
hung up in TX after switching back to receive. It seemed like an
intermittent short somewhere in the keying line. Of course every modern
day shack in the 21st century has keying lines going all over the
place. While trying to keep the sked going, I was troubleshooting. It
seemed like there was a problem with my band decoder. Well the sked
ended badly. Between me not being able to receive, and nothing heard on
the other end, I finally stopped and tried to diagnose the problem. It
turns out that a DB15 plugged cable was the problem. It carries band
info to the decoder but also has a keying line in it. The fault was
within the cable. I took it home and opened it up, expecting to see
some of my patented sloppy soldering inside. Well shiver me timbres,
but it looked really classy with spaghetti tubing over each solder
joint, and all were nicely soldered to the pins. I must have been
pretending to be someone else when I made it. The plug on one end had
pinched the cable though, and I wondered if the low cost PVC cable had
suffered some damage there. I plugged it into another K3 at home and all
seemed OK. I figured that the pinched cable was the culprit. I could
find nothing wrong. I flexed and twisted and it kept working just fine.
I pronounced it good to go for the upcoming sked.
This morning I was up at the shack an our early to reconnect things. So
after re connecting everything I now had no receive signals on 222, and
I could not key the rig. I checked each cable and made sure all was
correct. Time was running out as Moonrise was in 15 minutes. I
suspected the band decoder had crapped out, so I ripped everything apart
and eliminated the band decoder, connecting the 222 transverter directly
to my K3, and running the keying line direct from the K3 to the 222 MHz
sequencer. Everything started working fine, but the shack is a mess.
The sked on EME was a bust nil heard anywhere.
So I went to shut down the generator and looked at the 10 meter rig
sitting there. "Gee, I wonder what is coming in on ten meters?" I
plugged in the laptop and found that the computer could not talk to the
rig. Mind you, this has been working great on other days with
absolutely no problems. Today, nothing worked!! I tried everything. I
re booted everything. I changed the baud rates to a slower speed. I
turned on the FT8 software and immediately decoded signals. The WSJTX
program did not complain about any missing radio, but I could not read
my frequency or change it from the computer. The frequency window said I
was on 00.000 MHz I actually worked a few stations by using VOX in place
of hard keying from WSJTX. Then after a minute or so, I looked at the
screen and saw a frequency listed. I turned the knob and WOW, it
changed!!! It just started to work all by itself.
By this time I was a wreck. I was cursing out all those little chips
that look so pretty but you have no idea what is going on inside them.
I was mumbling under my breath at how much of a pain it will be to test
out the band decoder that has only 18 million wires connected to it.
Then I realized that it is Tuesday and maybe I can get on the band and
have a relaxed evening talking with all the 222 boys and girls. What
are the chances that I have a relaxed evening? If you want to find out,
tune in to 222.100 plus or minus after dinner and find out. There is a
snow storm walloping the East Coast, but that should not slow us down. I
know most ops have their rigs indoors in a nice warm room. What better
way to watch the snow flakes fall than to sit at your 222 rig and call
CQ? At a minimum you can compare snow depths!
73
Dave K1WHS
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