++++++++++++++++++ See also Ham Humour ++++++++++++++++++ From: "Bruce D. McLaughlin" To: =?iso-8859-1?Q?'W=D8IFL'?= , "'Elecraft List'" Subject: RE: [Elecraft] Bad Condx? Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2003 18:35:44 -0400 A number of year ago I had a similar problem one night. Reception was very poor and no one came back to my CQs. I decided to get aggressive and turned on the amplifier. A large blue fireball emerged from the tuner accompanied by a bang which caused me to seriously think of taking up some other hobby. Outside, I found about three inches of one side of the ladder line missing. On the ground under the damaged section was a recently deceased squirrel. Apparently he had been dining on the ladder line about the time I started listening and calling. Ever since then when conditions are poor I think of them as being "squirrelly." Bruce - W8FU -----Original Message----- From: elecraft-admin at mailman.qth.net [mailto:elecraft-admin at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of W=D8IFL Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2003 8:56 AM To: Elecraft List Subject: [Elecraft] Bad Condx? Worked a couple stations on 20M last night, had a terrible time getting out. Not too bad hearing.. I chalked it up to bad propagation. Woke up this morning and noticed my dipole was laying on the ground. Actually more of a non-inverted Vee since the ends were still up. Now... where did I leave that slingshot?? RonE W=D8IFL K2 #2133 ++++++++++++++++++ Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2003 01:58:04 -0400 (EDT) From: k4wtf at enterzone.net To: =?Windows-1252?B?V9hJRkw=?= Cc: Elecraft List Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Bad Condx? On Thu, 17 Apr 2003, [Windows-1252] W=D8IFL wrote: > Worked a couple stations on 20M last night, had a terrible time getting o= ut. > Not too bad hearing.. I chalked it up to bad propagation. >=20 > Woke up this morning and noticed my dipole was laying on the ground. > Actually more of a non-inverted Vee since the ends were still up. >=20 > Now... where did I leave that slingshot?? >=20 > RonE > W=D8IFL > K2 #2133 Wow. I had a similar experience on my 160m loop. It had been a month or so since I'd been on 160m - I set the tuner to the KNOWN settings, hit the "dit" paddle and what I saw was NOT good! The red "Oh Crap" light on my VFD came on. I though, "Hrm... That's odd." After quite a bit of fiddling (using "dits" on a freq with no other operators) with the tuner, I finally got a 1:1 match. The settings were WAY different than my "KNOWN" settings for the antenna so, I decided that this was not simply a "wet leaves, wet ground changing the characteristics" type of issue. I went out side to find a tree (not one from my property) had been transplanted onto my property by one of the recent "straight-line wind" storms. (The Natl Weather Svc doesn't believe in Tornados in my area I guess.) Anyway, this "new" tree, complete with root system, was now laying against my 160m loop. That explained it. Anyway, strange things happen. I guess visual inspection of antenna systems is an important aspect of operating. ;) 73 de John - K4WTF K2/100 #2490 ++++++++++++++++++++