Ever have one of those days? I was getting ready to work some CW and after getting my desk top all arranged the way I wanted it, I somehow managed to shove my 1964 vintage Vibrokeyer off the back of my desk. It was not plugged into the radio, as I have been working with just my straight key lately. It landed....on the paddle. The worst possible way it could have landed. Feast your eyes on this sad sad picture.
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| KB9BVN's busted Vibrokeyer |
The paddle busted free of the adjustment nuts AND the little red ruby thingie on the top is GONE. It's a totally sad day in Mudville kids.
Luckily, Vibroplex has the parts to fix it up. Looks like about $35 with shipping. I will attempt to fix it myself since I am a Radio Amateur, and if I gronk it up too badly I will ship it off with a box of money to the mothership at Vibroplex for repair, adjusting, and cleaning.
Once I found all the parts I could find under my desk, I calmed down and tuned to 20m in hopes of working a western state. I CQ'd on 14050 for about 20 mins...and didn't get a bite. John K3WWP has been having great success on 80m, but alas I do not have an antenna at home that will work on 80m. I need to improve the antenna situation here.
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| KA4UPI in the Shack |
So I tuned down to 40m, 7051.5 Khz, and sent out my call a few times and nothing. I was reading the latest Harbor Freight Ad-zazine when I heard KA4UPI call CQ. I answered him and we had a great QSO. Mark was running 100w into a Double Bazooka antenna up about 40 feet. His radio was the venerable Icom 746 and he was SKCC member 2582T, a NEW SKCC contact for he and I both. Mark lives in Dublin Georgia. Dublin has about 17,000 people in it, and was named for Dublin Ireland by the early settlers that came there from the Emerald Isle. They also have produced a number of NFL players along the line.
Thanks for the QSO! I still need 20 more states!
de KB9BVN
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