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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
Randy McLain (KD5NZH)
on
September 27, 2002
View comments about this article!
Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
I hate to tell off on myself but they say that confession is good for the soul. I have been ham for only about 2 years now but I have already pulled some really stupid tricks. Following are just a few I'm willing to share...
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Cross band tricks I have an Icom 2800 rig in my truck. As you well know this radio is capable of monitoring 2 bands at the same time. On several occasions I have answered a call on the wrong band and after repeating my call several times with no answer I actually stopped the truck to check my antenna.
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The old sit on the mike trick Once during a Skywarn net I rushed out to my truck to turn on the radio after getting a signal from my pager. The LED meter showed full strength on the Skywarn repeater frequency but there was no audio! What could be wrong? I stared dumbly at the radio and turned the volume knob up and down (at this point I think my face probably resembled that of a dear just seconds before a truck runs him down). Then inspiration hit as I noticed the red transmit light glowing on the face of my rig. I frantically searched for the mike. Yep, right where my brain was...
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The old lost power trick After I passed my General exam I purchased a new HF rig. One night I rushed into the shack eager to get on the air. Anticipation was high as I booted the computer to get my logging program up and running. The sunspot numbers were through the roof and I knew that I was bound to make many new contacts. I confidently reached up and stabbed the power button on my rig. Nothing happened! WHAT! What could be wrong? It worked great last night! My heart sank, my rig is dead! I imagined the long wait as the radio was shipped to the far away repair shop and the hours of precious radio time I would lose. But wait, it could be a fuse! I checked the in line fuses. They were fine. Maybe an internal fuse? I carefully unhooked all my station gear, removed all the covers from the radio, and peered inside the radio. As I was doing this a nagging thought occurred, did I check the power supply? Well? A quick glance to my right revealed the power supply dumbly sitting on the desk waiting for some idiot to turn its power switch on.
Epilogue: Not listed but guilty all the same... How I learned about working split. Which end of a solder iron gets real hot. Mobile antennas don't like tree limbs (antenna base Ht. = 5' Tree Limb = 5') How I learned how much feed line to leave loose so rotor can turn antennas full 360 degrees.
While this list is representative of my indiscretions it certainly is not exhaustive. But it has only been 2
years! I'll check back after 10.
This article has expired. No more comments may be added.
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by KC4ZPA on September 4, 2002
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Well Randy you didn't fired, chewed out, black listed, ect. for those mishaps did you??
That is why we are called amatuers, though I have seen
pros. do more and worse things that that.
I have been A HAM for at 14 years and in the past I
have my learning curve also, hey just sit back and
enjoy. If you rank as a professional radio optr. then
i might say stand up and kick your self. But the best thing I have to say being an amateur is you never stop
learning.
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by N6AJR on September 27, 2002
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Great article, You ain't a real ham unless you have grabbed the wrong end of a soldering iron at least twice! ... tom N6AJR
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by NT9E on September 27, 2002
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I had just bought myself a Kenwood TS-440S/AT for passing my Amateur Extra exam(3 yrs ealrlier) and when I hooked it up to my antenna all I heard was atmospheric noise no qso's, no SWBC, nothing! I was all set to send it back to Kenwood for warranty repair when I found out there was a really strong solar flare going on just then (SOHO was not in orbit then). After a few hours I started hearing normal signals. That was back in 1990. Nowadays it's easier to get space weather news on the internet.
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by EA5ON on September 27, 2002
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Happens to us all.
While portable a couple of months ago I put up a dipole with twin feeder and plugged in my new portable ATU. Couldn't get the thing tuned properly for the life of me. But the rig put out plenty of power and I worked some nice DX. But it was still bugging me that it wasn't tuning right, couldn't figure it out at all. It was only 3 hours later I realised I'd plugged the patch lead into the "antenna" socket instead of the "transmitter" socket.
Only been licensed for ..er.. 14 years now?
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by N8UZE on September 27, 2002
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Hey, I've been an extra for quite awhile and I'd hate to reveal the stupid stunts I've pulled. So don't worry about being a newbie!
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by K9WLF on September 27, 2002
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Don't feel bad Randy, we all do stupid amateur tricks! Day before yesterday, I was on my way to service an account and was stuck having to park in a parking structure instead of a street lot because of preparations for the Miami Grand Prix. I was in a hurry and forgot to fold down the expensive Comet dual band fold down antenna when I should have folded down the expensive fold down antenna which then folded down permanently. OOOPPPPSSS!!
Amateur Radio, it's not just a hobby, it's an obsesion!
73, Tom, K9WLF/4
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by N9RLA on September 27, 2002
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OK, I'll join the confessions:-)
My favorite, and there have been many, is setting out on one of my Rover expeditions, getting to my first site and realizing I didn't bring any feedlines. DOHH!
Luckily, I was setup at a hamfest and was able to find a couple of short runs of used rg-8 I could afford:-)
73
Dan
Dan Evans N9RLA
Scottsburg, IN 47170
{EM78}
QRP-l #1269
1/2 of the N9RLA /R no budget Rover Team
Check out the Rover Resource Page at:
http://www.qsl.net/n9rla
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by W7WV on September 27, 2002
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Just yesterday, I was returning home using my 2 meter mobile having a nice QSO with a friend. I took a standby for minute to go into the house and turned on my 746 to continue the QSO and keyed down.
I heard my friend say that he heard a carrier buy no audio. What? My ICOM broke, that can't happen!
After changing mikes from the desk to the mobile I noticed that my mike gain was all the way down. It's right next to the power out and I guess I had grabbed the wrong one in the dark the night before when I shut down.
And N6AJR, I have grabbed the wrong end of a soldering iron so many times it's not funny! Used to work in the trade on the bench for a number of years. I think I still have the scars to prove it!
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by G4FON on September 27, 2002
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My best soldering iron story concerned my mother and occurred while I was a teenager living at home many years ago.
I had the iron switched on in its stand in my bedroom shack which happened to be at the front of the house. I was working on some project or another when my mum (mom) walked in to see what I was doing. At the same instance a large crash happened outside the house and mum (mom) leaned over my workbench to look out of the window to see what had caused it. In doing so she burnt a sizeable hole in her dress when it touched my soldering iron still hanging in its stand.
To this day I cannot fathom the female logic which made it my fault that the dress was ruined, but it sure taught me a lesson about the female of the species!
Ray
g4fon
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by NE0P on September 27, 2002
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Had a few others myself.
1. When my FT100D came a couple of months ago, got the rigblaster all rewired for it, and then went crazy because I couldn't get proper audio from the rigblaster into the radio. Went to the reflectors for help, figured it was something with the way the FT100D was designed, and was already to sell it when I discovered that I had the plug plugged into the wrong jack on the soundcard-works fine now.
2. Had a power cord for my TS2000 that just quit. Checked the fuses, visually they looked ok. Got out the voltmeter, and there was 12 volts getting thru on the cord. Tried a couple of new plugs, no luck. Took off the plugs, and directly wired it into the jack on an Icom 706, still no luck. Finally, after pulling my hair out, checked the resistance on the fuses, and found one was bad. Replaced it and the cord works fine
3. Have had problems tuning antennas only to find that I forgot to connect the antenna, or was switched to the wrong antenna, etc.
We've all been there, and I have a scar or two from the soldering iron.
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by NE0P on September 27, 2002
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Forgot the best one. My first rig was a National NCX-3, with a few problems (only made 2 QSOs on it before getting a Yaesu FT101B). The plug from the power supply was partially broken, so you had to be real careful taking it off the rig because some of the contacts were exposed. I unplugged the supply, but being a 14 year old novice operator, did not know that capacitors can hold a charge for awhile. Went to unplug the power cord, and next thing I knew I was lying on my bed, which was halfway across the room. Got a nice 800 Volt charge from it. Learned that lession real quick
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by K0WA on September 27, 2002
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I've been an active ham since 1965...and I have pulled some real stupid amateur tricks. In fact, I've advance farther that just the 101 class. I have my PH.D. in Stupid Amateur Tricks. In some cases (and I bet there are more of you out there) I am lucky to be alive. So, think before you climb, think before you play with electricity, think before you drive into a tornado, think before you purchase a $3500 rig on the credit card without telling (asking) your spouse. (These are just starters!)
Lee - K0WA
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by KT8K on September 27, 2002
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This one may qualify for graduate degree credit: On a field day in the mid-80's, the biggest one we had ever put on (13A class), we decided to put one more band, 6 meters, on the air at 6AM Sunday as the sun was just coming up. We were at a park far out in the country, and decided to put the 6M vertical on a 30 foot telescoping mast on the highest point we could get to, right out by the paved road. We were all completely exhausted from operating all night, which led to our mistake. A half dozen or so of us grabbed the mast and pushed it upright. As it reached the vertical we heard a Zzzzzannnngggg kind of noise and, looking up, noticed we had pushed it up right between a couple of high voltage lines (the insulators looked right for about 4800 volts). We quickly let it down and spent the next half hour getting over the adrenalin-shakes. The power lines must have been dead, because otherwise a few of us might have been that way. If that wasn't the stupidest thing I ever did, I don't know what was. Be careful when you're overtired (one of a number of lessons learned very quickly that morning).
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by WB2WIK on September 27, 2002
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Nice article!
I've been a ham over 37 years and still do stupid stuff. Most recently, I received a telephone call at my office about 11:00am, from a local ham who said he'd spent at least three hours tracking me down.
My two meter FM rig at home was evidently continuously keyed on the local simplex chat frequency, rendering the frequency useless for all mobiles because they couldn't talk over the strong carrier eminating from my home. I couldn't believe it, I would never do that!
I asked how they were sure the signal was coming from my home, and the fellow said, "I called your home telephone number, and could hear the phone ringing over the air, on your two meter signal." Well, that's pretty convincing.
I drove home (10 mins) and did discover the PTT bar on my 2m rig's desk mike was locked down, and the rig was indeed transmitting.
I left the rig on (powered up), as I normally have done for years, since it only draws a couple of Watts on receive, and there's really no reason to ever shut it off. Except for one: My mother-in-law, who was visiting us at the time, went into my shack to "dust," and that included dusting the microphones. And evidently, that included pressing the PTT bar on this desk mike, locking it into the "transmit" position.
Very embarrassing. I don't leave the rigs on all the time, anymore.
WB2WIK/6
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by AD7DB on September 27, 2002
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Ah yes, the old Cross Band trick!
This didn't happen to ME but I know the guy it did happen to. Many of us around here monitor two repeaters at once during a morning commute. One day these guys got talking to each other, and each thought the other guy was on the same repeater! One guy was talking on one machine on one band, the other guy was answering on another repeater on another band! It just happened that both of them were monitoring both machines.
He says this went a while before someone came up on one of the repeaters and asked, "Who are you talking to? I don't hear anyone but you on here!"
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by K3ZD on September 27, 2002
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I just started working mobile a while ago and thought it would be a great idea to monitor the rig through my car stereo system by using one of those adaptors that allows you to listen to a CD player through a cassette player. It sounded real good, until I transmitted. You never heard such a noise in your life. The RF blew out the digital display of the car stereo. The stereo still works, but I have no idea of what station I'm listening to.
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by KX8N on September 27, 2002
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K3ZD, holy cow, thanks for bringing that up. I was considering doing that myself! Thank goodness I hadn't yet. I thought that would be an easy way to hear my rig a little better. Thanks for letting me know not to do that!
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by K8AG on September 27, 2002
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Even when my new antenna wouldn't match well (SWR around 3.0 if I was lucky), I couldn't believe that nobody came back to me. Fairly significant signals acted if I wasn't there.
I employed my wife and my HT with general coverage. I sent her out around the neighborhood to se if I was "getting out". She said that I might be heard in the driveway!!!!
Turns out I had a braid wire short on a PL259 on the output of the tuner. Amazing how the tuner actually tried to tune the short. Even more amazing is, I was hearing quite a fea signals.
Great article.
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by KE4MOB on September 27, 2002
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The classic: leaving the VOX on the HF and yelling at your wife in the other room: the whole world gets to hear you yell "HONEY, COULD YOU LET THE DOG OUT?"
Steve, KE4MOB
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by W4CNG on September 27, 2002
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I've done a few myself. Best one was I went out to buy a new multi-meter to replace the old one. Get it home, pop in the AA battery and go to check voltages and resistors. No readings. Voltage measurement does not require a battery. Swapped test leads, still nothing. Got 4 page book and read step 1 "Cut the Red wire across the meter movement before using". The meter is shorted for transportation to remove damage in transit. After that I learned to read most of the directions.
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by WB6BYU on September 27, 2002
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Well, you never learn LESS...
Those of us who started out in the age of tubes learned
to respect high voltages, usually after they got the
better of us a few times. Unfortunatly, after working
on solid state rigs for many years, I've let my guard
down, and have come very close to the +800V line a
couple of times when I do work on a "glow-FET" rig.
But there is something about Field Day and portable
operation that really brings out the "best" in us, even
before we open the beer. I threw a long wire antenna
over an old snag once, and the wire hung up when I went
to pull it back down. So I shinnied the trunk (about
2' in diameter) to free it. I was probably 20' up
when I realized the trunk was rotten and was starting
to wobble. (I could about stick my fingers into the
wood...)
Another year I set up on the edge of the inside waters
in Southeast Alaska. Walked out on the tide flats at
low tide and rigged a sloping long wire over salt water
that broke pileups with 2 watts. I had set the rig
on a log at the edge of the water, and forgot that low
tides are followed by high tides... a couple more
inches of water and I would have been maritime mobile!
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by K1ZC on September 27, 2002
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Tips on summertime soldering:
1. Regardless of how hot the weather may be, avoid the temptation to solder while wearing shorts. Molten metal will sometimes drip.
2. If you disregard rule number 1 and decide to solder in shorts, try not to drop the soldering iron. If you do accidentally drop the iron, avoid the impulse to catch the it by squeezing your thighs together. If you do catch the falling soldering iron with your thighs, try to open them up again as quickly as possible.
I have been guilty of number 1, and I have watched number 2 happen. Two words: long pants.
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by KL7EDK on September 27, 2002
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Having to make up about 7 coax cables for field day had me busy. It only took about 3 cables before I forgot to put the shell on the cable first. PL-259's just don't work well without the shell. They work even better if you put in on facing the correct direction!
73
Jerry
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by NB6Z on September 27, 2002
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I can't take all the blame for this one... Way back in highschool, a group of us young hams decided to pack up and head to Angeles Crest Forest for a weekend of Field Day Contest fun. We all pitched in and we rented a large gas generator (the kind with wheels for towing) and had the father of one friend drive is up and drop us off at a remote camp ground near Mt. Wilson Observatory. We spent a morning setting up stations for each HF band/mode including wire antennas in pine trees. By afternoon we were really into the contest mode and having fun... We planned it out so that at least one station would be operated continuously to insure our success in achieving placement in the portable powerred division. That evening a US Forest Ranger pulled into our camp and told us that no generator noise was allowed after 8PM...
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by AG4QV on September 27, 2002
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Years ago a bunch of us were putting up a Yagi with a 20 foot telescoping pole on the roof of a friend. We had everything in place with the lower 10 foot section guyed to the corners of the roof. One indiividual was on a ladder up against the lower section and he was telescoping up the upper section by hand. As he got near the end he gave a mightly heave and pulled the entire upper section out of the lower section. There he was up this ladder now holding the entire upper section of the pole plus the rotor plus the Yagi in his bare hands. We watched in awe as the entire upper section pivoted down to the roof. He managed to hold on to his end and not fall off the ladder. The end of the beam struck the roof and punched a very neat hole through both the shingles and under-lying plywood like a paper punch. Of course, we were very lucky that no one was injured. We patched the hole with a small piece of wood and sealed it up with tar, laid the lower section down to re-insert the upper section, and put the whole thing back up but without the final big heave. It wasn't funny at the time but later we all joked about the look on the face of the guy up the ladder when he was supporting the whole upper section in has bare hands.
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by KG4NGY on September 27, 2002
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Why they call it a "Dummy Load"
I use a separate antenna for receiving on my Yaesu FT-101ZD, and after I tune the finals and tuner, I use the dummy load to set power, usually 50 watts. Well, as you have guessed, I left the switch on "dummy Load"; could not imagine for the life of me why I was not heard! After all, I could copy signals clearly with my receiving antenna!
I have also caught the soldering iron after dropping it in my lap....
KG4NGY Shannon
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by K4IA on September 27, 2002
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As a kid we used to strip wire with our teeth. If you are weak of heart, stop reading.
Well, there was this antenna wire hooked up to an old short wave radio and I decided to strip the end and add some more wire to it so the antenna might work better.
Seemed the antenna connector was "hot" and I got the shock of my life - an electrifying experience if you will.
Almost as good as lifting up my uncovered DX60 and getting a finger across the 800 volt plate supply. I actually heard the whine of the power supply before I felt the burn. Lucky for me that the connection to ground was through the finger and not through the body. Only burned a little bit off the end. Hurt like the dickens but eventually healed.
I won't even begin to tell you the story of how we used to get 45 volt batteries out of the waste bin at the telephone company and hook them up in series to see how long a spark we could generate by rubbing the two wires together and pulling them apart. 20 batteries in series would be 900 volts. Lets see what 30 batteries will do. Lucky I never stripped that wire! Got really interesting when a spark landed in our supply of homemade gunpowder. Kids today are tame.
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by KE4MOB on September 28, 2002
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Oh, another good one: spend hours raising an antenna, only to realize you forgot to attach the feedline...
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by M0BOL on September 28, 2002
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Well Randy, I disagree with KC4ZPA, it's nothing to do with being an "amateur", I've been a ham and a pro electronics engineer for about 23 years, and I STILL drop the occasional clanger! (both on the air, and in my work!) Takes a good guy to admit it all though! well done!
Rob M0BOL
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by KB1IHG on September 28, 2002
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Well here's one I haven't seen yet. My face is STILL red over this one.
So its 9:45 P.M. and I'm down in the basement at the controls with my headphones on...baby just went down and I'm free to ham it up a little..
I work a little CW then start tuning around...hear a guy in the Virgin Islands blasting in on 15 meter SSB so I think I'll give him a shout ...besides this one guy 15 meters is absolutely sterile...I move over 20 kz and tune up, by the time I get back he's working a VK..
so seeing that 15 is actually open, and I'm all tuned up I mover over and call CQ...wait a
minute...my audio sounds funky...sort of like when I had RF problems with ladderline but without the garbled SSB thing...I'm all tuned up....better try 17, where I worked SSB all weekend...eek!
same thing!...Hmmm..when I push the PTT button I'm getting a fluctuating forward power reading without saying anything..should get nothing...sounds like hash with little static like crashes...yep RF for sure..well...just to be sure, I'll go to 40 where my new antenna rules..
AUGGG!!! worse!! ...try the old antenna which, at least, was RF free...
sigh...Oh NO! its STILL doing it! must be the radio...damn...what a drag to have to ship it back to Ten Tec..
hmmm...the MIC!!...we'll just take that sucker apart...must be a bad ground or a cold solder joint...that PTT/VOX slide switch looks awfully
suspicious...we'll just spray that thing with Progold...(mic back together)......NO CHANGE!...well...it could still be an RF problem...have to get back up on the roof tomorrow and check it out.... solder up my old D104 to a Ten Tec plug...make sure its not the mic...(I take off the phones)...wait a minute...those static crashes seem to oddly coincide with that bonking noise coming from the dryer I'd forgotten was on (cause I had on 'phones the whole time)...a load of clothes with my 4 year olds' tennis shoes...oh no..........
.....the mic was picking up the noisy dryer... Good thing I've got my Extra Class ticket or I'd NEVER have figured it out.
Andy W1AWB (formerly KB1IHG)
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by N8CDN on September 28, 2002
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My stupid amateur trick occured last November when I took my brand new Icom 718 out of the box and tried to hook it up. I bought a two position coax switch so I could switch between my TS 530S and the 718. I hooked it all up and turned the rig on to find there was barley any recieve. I worked on it all night and got more frustrated by the minute. I just could not figure it out. I went to bed that night with thoughts of returning the rig the following Monday. The next day I started to trace the cables and found out that I had hooked the two rigs together! Its a good thing I did not transmit! My ham friends as well as the wife got a good laugh out of it.
Terry N8CDN
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by WA2JJH on September 28, 2002
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My more stupid one's are.
1)Using my tongue as a voltmeter. I am quit accurate on voltage. I can handle a 12 volt battary.I can tell how depleted a 9volt is.
2) Using a thumb to see if RF was accross a coax.
1 watt takes about 5 seconds to feel the heat.
12watts@2ghz gave me a burn right away. I will not do this test abouve 25W.
3)When I was a young Novice I fell for the hamfest classic. The one where you buy a rig from some guy, and he says, "IT WORKED THE LAST TIME I USED IT!"
I expected the rig to work! Stupid me.
4)Like author of artical, did not look for obviouse
things. I think everyone can agree that all electronic equipment works much better when the source of power is on, or plugged in.
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by N9ESH on September 28, 2002
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Never use your mom's aluminum cloths line for an antenna. Especially on wash day!
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Forgetting about the VOX!
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by WD8MGO on September 28, 2002
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A very interesting question! When I was a beginning General Class I was a member of the Treaty City Amateur Radio Association. Another member and myself were using the club's Drake TR-4C with an external amplifier. From what I remember we were on twenty meters and working Europe and I had the sniffles. After a few contacts I let out a very loud sneeze which was picked up by the Drake's VOX. We then heard the amplifiers relays click and everyone broke out laughing. We wondered who had my sneezing?
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QRZ? QRZ? Who's there?
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by KB1FWN on September 28, 2002
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Right after I had first gotten my general ticket, I moved. Once in the new house, I had the coax going into the basement, through a crawlspace, and up into my shack. Me (being grade A moron) forgot to pull the coax up through the floor, and went to transmitt. No one could hear me. The computer restarted every time and touched the button, and the answering my going crazy. "This never happened at the old house"...stupidly I continued trying. Then I realized something, the coax was on the floor, right beside the hole. I pulled it through further, and plugged it in...BINGO! KB1FWN was on the air! This isn't the only stupid thing I've done, believe me. "AMATEUR RADIO OPERATOR" explains the scars, gashes, and burn marks that cover my arms.
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by N2JDQ on September 28, 2002
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Very interesting article,
Well as the smile on my face widens, ill share one of my own " stupid amateur tricks "
While wiring up my brand new mc-60 desk mic, to an older ft101e... i was tuning around the 20m band... looking for new countries ect... OHHH found one...neet... so I hurried to complete the wiring of the 4 pin connector, when I was done wireing it up and putting the screws back into the mic plug.. I laid the iron down... OK ready to give this a try with a new mic... I keyed the mic nothing... hmmm , so i manually keyed the rig thinking that mabey the ptt line was a cold or misplaced joint...still nothing... SNIFF SNIFF... whats that smell... as I looked down... there was my now two corded MC60 mic cable, as my iron burned right through the cord...
These things happen... and I actually laughed for abt 5 minutes... some things ya cant take too seriously...altho a new or shortened cord was now the task at hand...
Some one ought to write a book on these little things... I bet you would make a lot of hams laugh.
-steve
n2jdq
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by WA2JJH on September 28, 2002
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I must say this is one of the best forums I have experienced on Eham. After the vulture forum, I need a few chuckles.
One time I was soldering a waveguide joint. Used a 150 Watt solder gun,and a lot of solder. I was bare foot. No shoes or socks.
A huge solder glob spilled on the top of my foot.
OOUUUCCHHH!!!! I will never forget the smell of solder resine and burn't flesh.
Had to wait for the solder to cool. The 20 seconds seemed like hours. To add double insult to injury, I yankeed the flattened solder off the top of my foot.
Wish I had a pithy qoute or pun for this stupid ham trick.
Ohh OK ...Don't complain about hams using legal limi
amps. Cause I got burned operating barefoot?
If you have a better punch line, I am all ears!
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by WA9SVD on September 29, 2002
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Ok, I admit to this one. Putting an extra shell on a patch cable by not paying attention....
But the worst I've seen (I didn't do it, but it WAS my antenna): Trying to haul a 4 el. 6M beam up four stories solely by the coax! Fortunately, the connector (type "N") gave way at the 10 foot mark, so there wan little permanent damage, except for the connector.. (And the loss of 6M on Field Day!) A whole Club of Amateurs can't defy the forces of gravity.
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by KD7RQH on September 29, 2002
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I'm a fairly new ham (4 months) and had to have the chat with the kid's regarding daddie's "walkie-talkies" when I started this hobby. Low and behold, one day my son decided to scare daddy (no obscenities, but he was pretending to be the landlord and interested in an antenna I had put up...) while I was listening on another receiver over the local repeater. I'm not sure how common this is, but I suppose somebody else's children have done some transmitting...
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by KG4OGN on September 29, 2002
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Well,
I got licensed at the age of 13 {I am now 14} and I can rememer my first time soldering a pl-259 to my coax, I did a really nice job {I did get the tip of the soldering gun to glow hot I though that was cool} so when I was done I put the solderiing gun on my desk and put my left arm just right on top of it, about 3 second's later I pulled my arm up to see it smoking, I was like wow this is cool, about 2 second's after that I started to feel a new kind of pain {That was about 8 month's ago} and I can still see the tip of the iron in my left hand, I won't say anything about the time I tripped over a guy wire and almost had a 60 foot tower on top of me. I dont even think I can count how many times I have dropped hot solder on myself {I hate how you have to let it cool off before you can "flick" it off} I remember once, I was charging up my Yaesu VX-150 and I took it off charge and went to power it up, nothing happened, so I checked to see that the charger was plugged in it was, so I figured I would check the end of the charger like you would check a 9volt bettery, ouch!! After that I went to school and had yearbook pictures taken, everybody asked me why the tip of my tong looked so funny. I remember I went to plug in my power supply into the wall after dinner {forgot the switch and radio were switched to the on position}}and my hands were still a little bit greasy from the chicken} so as I was pushing the jack into the wall my hand slipped and came into contact with the 2 metal prong's OOUUCCHH!! Nothing like 120 volt's going through you to wake you up! What about the time my coax was cut, I was trying to raise a repeater about 3 miles from my house coudnt do it on 5 watt,s couldnt do it on 25 watt's this is weird, maybe 50 watt's will do it nope. Aweek later I was cleaning out the car and found the coax cut! That's enough of that for one day, remember to be a ham you have to at least drip hot solder on yourself at least 1 time!
Alexander KG4OGN 73!
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by AG4RC on September 29, 2002
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After a months of studying, two exam sessions I migrated from the 11-Meter (free band) to Amateur Extra. I thought yippy great! .. Now I can finally use the 10-meter band on my HR-2510 rig! Cool.. now lets do some CW while the code is still dormant in my brain. . .
Wired in my old straight-key I’ve owned since a teen, Flipped the dial of my rig to CW, Tuned to the CW section of the 10-meter band and listened . . . Great a call came in “CQ CQ DE . . . “ Well here it is my claim to fame my first CW contact – Griped my old key and answered back watching my S/RF meters – Half way through realized NO POWER OUTPUT! – Darn! Drat! – What can be wrong … Arggg! – Checked ALL power & RF connections – Verified continuity on my straight key, Even manual shorted the KEY terminals on the back of the rig – STILL NO RF OUTPUT IN CW MODE!
Quickly tore the rig apart, traced the CW KEY (trigger) wire to a 2N222 transistor in series with the main circuit board. Verified the input to the transistor indeed shunts to ground – BUT STILL NO RF OUTPUT IN CW MODE! – Figured easy fix – Replaced the transistor – Then one more on-the-air test. . .
However this time pushed in the [Transmit] button before pressing the Straight-Key – WOW what do you know – Full RF power in CW mode!
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by W5HTW on September 29, 2002
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Fortunately, being a ham for a long time, a government HF radio operator, a broadcast engineer, and the owner of a 2-way radio shop, I have never done anything stupid. Sorry to hear some of you have.
I still recall the time I was sitting in the radio shack, and it was night, and it was my duty to respond every half hour to the HF net, via CW. I had trained myself to doze for 15 or so minutes and then awaken to hear the net call, send my call sign and a quick QRU, and go back to sleep. But this night something kept "snapping" around the relatively quiet radio room, as quiet as it can be with a BC610-I sitting there. I turned the radio down more, to try to locate this odd snapping sound. Ah, there it was, at the coax connector to the transmitter. That connector was mounted in a plexiglass panel, so it was ungrounded, for the balanced output. And there, in the dark, there were these little white arcs from the coax shield to the transmitter case.
No sir, I'm not stupid. I knew that was static electricity. And I knew the best thing to do was simply unscrew the antenna and ground it. Interesting. Of course,it was by choice that I decided I could measure the static discharge with my hand before unscrewing the connector. One "Ouch" means "bad." Two "Yikes" means very bad, and four "g@#$*&%" means several "ouches, a few yikes, and a couple of ....." Not stupid. This was all planned.
So I decided the best way to get that coax PL259 unscrewed with not to touch it. I would use pliers, I would. Yes, indeedy. And so I did. But they weren't insulated. As I picked them up from where I had thrown them in the dark room, I thought maybe I should find an insulated pair. Which I did.
Then I grabbed that PL259 with the insulated pliers. Odd. I knew, so it wasn't a stupid trick, that 1/32 inch of insulation wasn't going to mean a whole lot to a static arc that was jumping 3/4 inch. I found the second pair of pliers under a tool box, using my good hand to find them. And with interesting sound affects.
Not being stupid, I decided it was probably best to grab some bare wire, wrap it around the PL259 and ground the darned antenna right to the transmitter chassis. Yes, that will work. Oh, I should mention, though, you need to connect the end to the ground before you connect the other end to the antenna. More sound affects.
I retrieved the piece of wire, bolted it securely to the transmitter frame, then wrapped it around the PL259. In spite of a bit of a jolt, it worked and the antenna was now grounded.
A couple of years later a good friend of mine reached into the innards of a 10 KW SW AM transmitter, with a tank coil the size of a kitchen trash can. It was disconnected from power entirely, but, unfortunately for him and his vocabulary, was still hooked to a huge 3-wire rhombic out there swinging in the cold wind. The arc from the antenna loading coil could be heard all over the transmitter building, and it burned his finger rather badly. He knew better, too, and was just testing for the presence of static electricity. I learned a new word or two from him. I'm sure that was his intent. .
Reminds me of the time I was jusing a portable jig saw to cut some old wood. Oddly, after several very difficult cuts, I noticed there was no smoke coming from the blade. That blade should be hotter than a burrito in a microwave. So, with the saw off, I gripped that jig saw blade between my thumb and forefinger. Now that wasn't stupid. I was testing. I had long been curious as to whether skin would stick to a hot jigsaw blade and this was the perfect time to find out. It worked beautifully.
After I retrieved the saw and made sure it was unplugged, I soaked my hand in cold water for a while. That was, you understand, all part of the plan. Check jig saw blade for heat. Soak fingers. Soak head.
There was the time I was working on an old KW CW transmitter in the basement. But while doing so I was also chatting with my brother in law on 75 meter sideband. My wife came downstairs to chat with her brother, and she stopped beside me. She didn't stay very long. Seems I had laid the very hot and still plugged in 55 watt soldering iron on the concrete floor. Couldn't hurt anything down there. Except, of course, bare feet. Again, though, this was planned. I had been wondering about the smell of burning bare feet and obviously I didn't want to burn my own. What better way to test this out?
When I told her the joke about the boy visiting the blacksmith, she went upstairs crying. The boy watched the blacksmith pull a horseshoe out of the fire and lay it down. The shoe looked ready to use, so the boy picked it up. He also put it down, very quickly, and looked around. The smitty said, "What's wrong? Was it hot?" The boy said, "Nope. Just doesn't take me long to look at a horseshoe." My wife ( should be more specific; ex-wife) can tell how long it takes to stand on a soldering iron. About two seconds.
We are full of career experiments. I learned about bleeder resistors, big time. And what happens if they open. I learned about a grid modulator plugged into a cathode-keyed transmitter, with a metal cased microphone. That lesson I learned from the opposite side of my bedroom after I flipped up the plate switch. I learned about RF and mobile antennas when I leaned into a 10 meter antenna during a transmitter hunt, long long ago. My bare arm still has a scar. That was, of course, my intent, not a stupid trick.
After using a transceiver for a while on HF I switched back to separates - separate transmitter and receiver. Of course, I was experimenting, to see how long it would take me to remember the transmitter was not necessarily on the receiving frequency. Or even on the same band.
I learned not to leave the rig set up for break-in CW, the paddles in plain open sight on the desk, and the cat looking for a place to sleep. He did not mind the beeping, and I called him Ditty Kitty after that for a while. It was lucky - I had been running some tests on the dummy load (no, not me, the OTHER dummy load) so his SOS to the SPCA did not go on the air. He has, by the way, also worked the VOX on 20 meters one day, and that WAS on the air. And he is NOT licensed. As far as I could tell, it was only a single "Meow" and I was in the room at the time and made a mad dash for the microphone.
Nothing stupid in my life. It's the cat's fault.
73
Ed
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by KG6CRI on September 30, 2002
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ok,i was waiting for someone to tell about the pl blunder. i can beat anyone in that dept. of the 156 thousand pl,s ive put on,at least 56k have been missing the sleeve. now normal hams will put one on and then if they forget,slide the sleeve the 125 feet thru the open end. unless your me.you wilL put both PL,S ON thinking that you can slide the sleeve on after you finish. THEN,you are so upset,and want ot get your new antenna connected so fast,you decide you can splice in the center. Heck a splice aint to bad at HF,ill eventually need a shorter piece. So measure the middle,snip,solder,DARN forgot the frigin sleeve AGAIN!,beat that....There is now a little sticky label glued ot my iron, SLEEVE :) ,73
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by KG6JEV on September 30, 2002
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Quote:
Nude soldering
Unquote
I'm not even going to ask. hi hi
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by WB6BYU on September 30, 2002
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When soldering small components such as diodes and
transistors, or small connectors, you want to cool
the joint off quickly afterwards. Blowing on it helps,
and also explains the burn marks on my lips from the
hot joint. (And more than once from the iron that I
didn't get out of the way in time!)
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by KD5KQN on September 30, 2002
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(I'm sure everyone else's rigs are computer interfaced, but... )
Here's my definition of
STU-PID, (adjective):
1. Switching bands in a contest and making at least 20 QSOs before realizing that computer log is still showing the old band ...or was it TWO band switches ago?! ...I couldn't possibly have worked that ZL on 80m with my dipole.
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by W9SZ on September 30, 2002
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Something I've done more than once, even recently, is to hook up the power supply leads to a homebrew project backwards. I once had to replace about 10 transistors and a couple IC's after doing that. More recently, most of my projects use a voltage regulator which is usually the only thing to go, but they make expensive fuses! Also, Murphy's law dictates that the parts that blow out are buried under a half a dozen other components.
A few years ago I was working 40 meter CW on Field Day. I fell asleep late at night and woke up to the sound of "dah-dah-dah-dah..." out of the rig's speaker. I have NO idea how long I had my head down on the table on the keyer paddle!
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by WA9SVD on September 30, 2002
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They're NOT "Stupid Amateur Tricks." They are "Important Learning Experiences." (AKA Stupid Amateur Tricks!) LOL
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by KC8TCQ on October 1, 2002
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On one occasion, while working with the American Red Cross on an assignment in WV, I was working with one of the mobile feeding units called an ERV (Emerency Response Vehicle). These vehicles have VHF lowband radios and a P/A system with two seperate microphones. While out taking meals to the people cleaning up after the flooding, we heard over our radio "this is your American Red Cross with hot meals, would you like hot meal?" So my being the smart a$$ that I am I grabbed the mic and said yeah we need 3 of them(one for myself, and two for the people preparing the meals in the back of the ERV I was driving).
On another occasion at the local American Red Cross chapterhouse, I was in the radio room talking to some of the volunteers when rich heard someone calling him on the CB, well he grabbed the wrong mic to respond, he grabbed my 2m mic, fortunately the radio was not turned on.
I have not made that many mistakes yet, but, I am still a relative newcomer to the hobby. Give me time, because when I screw up I tend to do a royal job of it hi hi.
73 de Keith
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by KC7DMF on October 1, 2002
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I did that, it works great, best sound i think I have ever heard from my IC-706mkII yes running 100watts mobile no prob 10/6/2/440 50/20 respectively... I have been doing so for the past 6 months+ Mujst have been a cheap csterero? or some wiring mishap, .....
I have not tried 20/40/80 only bcause im not a gen+ so just a lonely tech+ lol....
Mark
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by K3RKS on October 1, 2002
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I am as guilty as the rest of you. I remember finding out how hot the key on a cathod keyed 807 can get with the key up. Also, I learned never try to see why the plate ammeter shunt is intermittent while transmitting. The rig didn't have a cabinet. My 2 meter mobile trick was to have the coiled mike cord snatch the steering wheel while I was making a left turn. While making the turn, the steering wheel wrapped up the mike cord. After completing the turn, the mike cord unwound and the mike sailed out the open passenger side window only to recoil into the side of the car. My neighbor watched this whole scene. After that moved the radio location in the car. As a novice in the 60's, I fed my 40 meter dipole with 75 ohm twin lead. This wire was largly worse than 22 gauge zip cord. After W3PII told me how to use RG58 to feed the antenna I started to make contacts. The wire was actually a good linear dummy load. I am guilty of trying to solder a connection using 18 gauge buss wire for solder. Buss wire does not drip on your bare legs though. Try as I might, I have had a great difficulty soldering RG8 to the dipole 30 strung between tree limbs in the wind. Actually, I soldered the solder to the antenna. This has been the best post I have seen yet. It brought back a lot of good memories.
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by K2JX on October 1, 2002
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Priceless
Thanks for the laughs,
Certainly refershing to read an article like this about "our " hobby, instead of the continuos print about it's demise.
73, Jack-K2JX
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by N8WL on October 1, 2002
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Well, I think I have the honor of having the most RECENT S.A.T.'s.
1. This evening I measured copper wire for a dipole, cut off the excess, and then accidentally soldered the excess piece to the center insulator! DUH!
2. A few minutes ago I went to post this S.A.T. and tried to register as a new member of eham.net. The system told me I had already registered! DUH! Fortunately I guessed correctly which password I had used!
Steve N8WL
Advanced to S.A.T. 102 by now
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by KC2IVL on October 2, 2002
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Stupid Amateur tircks
Using the wrong microphone -- multiple times
Forgetting to place the pl259 shell on the coax or placing it on backwards -- more times than I can remember
Forgetting to turn on the power supply and thinking the rig was dead -- did that this morning -- twice.
Grabbing the wrong end of the soldering iron -- here I have been lucky, I have never actually done that.
But here is the stupidest thing I have ever done -- it was prior to becoming a ham, but does involve electronic stuff.
While in collge I had a part time job at a local cb/car stereo shop. We also did some other minor electronic repairs in the back room. One day someone brought in a guitar amp, and said that it was not working. Since it was late in the day, we had them leave it and said that we would take a look at it in the morning. The next morning I started to look at the amp, and plugged it in, surprisingly nothing happened (I say this because many times folks would bring stuff in that worked perfectly). After a few seconds of thought (my mind was much sharper 20 years ago) I arrived at the brilliant conclusion that something was wrong with the fuse. Sure enough something was wrong with the fuse -- in fact the fuse was totally missing.
Figuring that this was going to be a real easy repair, I went and poured myself a good hot cup of coffee. Upon returning to by bench, I reached into the parts bin, and grabbed what I --THOUGHT-- was a 5 amp fuse. I replaced the fuse and turned the amp back on. It came to life -- for about 1 second then *POP* the fuse blew. Upon removing the burnt fuse, I noticed that the fuse holder was hot -- very hot in fact, so hot that the glass tube was glowing. Since I had not consumed my morning cup of coffee yet, my reactions were sort of slowed, and when I finally realized that the fuse was *REALLY* hot, I dropped it.
Normally this would have been a smart thing to do. The only problem was that when I dropped the glowing glass tube, it ended up falling in between my shoe and sock. Needless to say, this was not a good thing. Realizing that I needed to do something right away, I reached for the first available thing to extinguish my now smoldering sock and shoe. Thinking quickly, I grabbed the first container that I saw -- my cup of coffee, and dumped it on my foot.
My foot was no longer smoldering, but things were progressing from bad to worse. In a second flash of brilliance, I grabbed the next available thing on my workbench -- a can of -33F circuit chiller. For some reason, my pain addled mind thought that this would solve the problem, and I sprayed it all over my java soaked soaked foot.
Well this sort of worked. When everything was finally over, I figured that the burn needed medical attention. It did, and the ER Docs were amused about the fact that I had both a 3rd degree burn and frostbite at the same time.
Anyway, everything is a learning experience. remember -- 0.5 amp fuses are not the same as 5 amp fuses, and should not be mixed in the same parts box. And I never
drink coffee while working around electronic gear anymore.
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by KX8N on October 2, 2002
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But KC2IVL, did the 5 amp fuse fix the guitar amp?
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by K2GW on October 3, 2002
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I've been a ham for 28 years and still manage to invent some new stupid tricks. Here's my most recent and original.
Last year I bought a new TS-2000 to use as the main HF rig in the shack. I had a lot of fun on the HF bands for a few months and then noticed that folks were reporting a lot of DX spots on 6 Meters.
Since I now had a rig capable of working 6 meters, I decided to put a dipole for 6 meters on my roof to get on the band for the first time. I connected it to my HF coax antenna switch and tried it out. The SWR was terrible. No matter how much I tried to lengthen or shorten the antenna, I couldn't get it to load right. I finally gave up in disgust.
It wasn't till I came back to it a few days later that I realized operating on 50 MHz would be a lot easier if I removed the Drake low pass filter (which has cutoff frequency of 30 MHz) that was between the rig and the HF antenna coax switch! I had forgotten it was in the line behind the desk!
Simply removing it fixed the problem. I then made my first contact by calling CQ. A station in San Diego answered me.
73
Gary, K2GW
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by W1RG on October 3, 2002
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I vaguely remember back in nineteen sixty...mumble.. I had just finished building a Halli-kit HT-40. Seems there was some problem (self induced, no doubt) and I had the cover off with my hand gently laid on the final tank coil when someone (!) keyed it for a second... RF burns look amazingly like yellow zebra stripes, and the odor is unique... Y'all be careful, hear..
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RE: Forgetting about the VOX!
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by N2CU on October 4, 2002
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I was calling in a pileup for some station whose callsign escapes me. Felt that tingly feeling building up in my nose and before I could push the VOX button off, I let out a monster sneeze. It broke right through the pileup and the other operator said "God bless you" and then asked for my call. New technique for breaking pileups?
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by W0MHZ on October 4, 2002
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I was about 15 years old and in the process of replacing a speaker on an old short wave receiver, after unplugging it. I knew that high voltage filter capacitors could hold a charge for a time, but I didn't realize that the old speaker used a coil for it's magnetic field rather than a permanent magnet, and that coil was connected to the B+ supply. I don't know the voltage, but it knocked me off my feet when I started to cut the speaker leads.
p.s. I'm glad we're still around to write about some of these stupid tricks.
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by N1GNV on October 4, 2002
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For last year's CQWW, I planned to use my brand-new FT-817 in the backyard, with a High Sierra vertical on the car parked close by.
The wx turned nasty, and I realized I had to solder some PL-259's on a length of coax in order to reach indoors. Got the first one on, checked for short, all ok. Attached it to the antenna. Soldered the other end on. Dang! Shorted. Clipped it off, soldered another one on. Double Dang!! Can't believe I shorted two in a row, I've done plenty of these over the years. Okay, clip off #2, start over working very slowly and carefully on #3.
Fortunately, I remembered that the antenna uses a shunt coil to ground (and so is a DC short) before I got to #4. The other two connectors were just fine, of course. Anyone need 2 inch coax jumpers?
73,
John Bee N1GNV
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by N0TONE on October 4, 2002
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Lesson learned: Solder drips. How learned: First time installing an HF rig in the car. I was soldering to the dashboard (they were made of metal in those days) for the multivibrator power supply (am I OLD???). I just kept feeding more (acid-core) solder into the joint where the copper braid joined the inside of the steel dash and it flowed and flowed and flowed. About two ounces of molten solder finally overcame a little lip and poured neatly onto my face. That was the only time in my life that my wife was thankful that I had a beard. Did you know that beard hairs can melt together and form a giant mess? I did get burned, but it would have been a LOT worse without the beard.
I'm not really sure how to indicate this lesson. For many years, I worked a traffic net on 80 meter CW. When the gang would meet at a hamfest, we'd chat about the differences between the morning net, the afternoon net, the evening net, the slow speed net, etc. There was a net referred to as the "alarm clock net", and I assumed it was early in the morning. I stayed home from work one day to do some stuff on the house and learned differently. At 10:00am, I heard our alarm clock go off. I went into the house to see why. My wife said she always set it for 10:00 am, and that's when she called her elderly mom to see if she needed anything! I was in the habit of leaving the rigs on, since the old tube rigs drifted. To ensure that they would not accidentally transmit, I switched them from CW to SSB - forgetting about that new-fangled "VOX" stuff. My wife's sewing room and my hamshack were the same room. And she placed that wind-up alarm clock on my ham desk - about six inches from the microphone. Had been going on for six months - and that's how that CW net became known as the "alarm clock net". I never told the guys whose alarm clock it was.
AM
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by WB3EBN on October 4, 2002
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Why do ya think they call us Amateurs....just think of the stories we could tell if they called us professionals!
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by KD7PKO on October 5, 2002
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Articles like this make me feel so much better about my skills. I have never made any of these mistakes, ever! I consider myself a professional that dabbles in ham radio! BTW I have just placed an ad in the classified section for some fantastic OCEAN-FRONT property I own on the Arizona/New Mexico border if anybody is interested......The price is VERY reasonable hi hi!
73, Chris-KD7PKO
P.S. Can anybody reccomend the best way to remove solder burns from car upholstry?!?!?
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by WA9SVD on October 5, 2002
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Hi Chris,
The best way to remove solder burns from car upholstery is to buy a new car. (L O L !)
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by RobertKoernerExAE7G on October 5, 2002
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Still one of my favorites.
After checking the wiring inside a rig, and finding everything looked OK, I decided to check the AC outlet.
WHAM!
I was arch welding with the test probes. Seems as if I forgot to switch the VOM from DC to AC.
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by VA7KBH on October 6, 2002
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Wow. I can't stop laughing!
I've only been a ham for a few months yet, so nothing too much fun yet.
Except for the time the elmer decided to let us Basics have a test at the CW paddles, forgetting to hook up the dummy load.
Or the time when I was about 14 (a year or so ago) when I found that dripping solder on concrete flooring makes a lovely splatter. poor feet
Or the time the home-made Yagi decided to use me as a driven when I held it there.... zap, the magic of non-insulated coathangers.
Laughing myself silly (quick turn the VOX off!)
Kevin
VA7KBH
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by AB5Q on October 7, 2002
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Has this ever happened to you?
When in the middle of a QSO for some unknown reason you start playing with the buttons and knobs on your transceiver. Next thing you know you find yourself in the middle of nowhere listening to static. Then in haste, you scramble to try to remember what band and frequency you were just on hoping that the other person is long winded. Now I know why they designed the frequency lock function into most transceivers.
Many years ago when I was young and invincible, I stuck my hand in an old tube amplifier to ASSIST the TX/RX relay (stuck occasionally). Received a painful RF burn as I graciously conducted a few hundred watts of RF power to ground with my THUMB. Today I realize how stupid this was and how fortunate it is that I wasn’t killed (HV was very close to that relay).
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by KC8JRV on October 8, 2002
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Nude sodering, eh?
Just watch out where you stick the plug...
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by WB6MLI on October 9, 2002
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1. Transistors do get hot.
2. Transistors are sometimes supposed to get hot.
3. Transistors with heatsinks get hot.
While troubleshooting an amplifier, I suspected the heatsink may be shorting the case. After removing the heatsink I switched on the amplifier (briefly I said). I smelled something hot.
Aha! I could smell a hot circuit board. As I got closer to the source, I felt pain in my nose.
I wore the Motorola symbol on the end of my nose for a few days. But I was right. The heatsink was shorting the transistor.
(4. Several Elmers, who noticed that famous sign, pointed out this short could probably be found without switching on the power!).
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101 (+1)
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by OK1FOU on October 9, 2002
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Calling a DX on SSB, but no luck. Surprisingly, there was no pile-up, but I just can't make it.
SWR seems perfect. Wait a minute... Not only that the reflected power is zero, the forward output is zero, too. Turning the driver knob - no change.
Then, after five odd minutes, I try ... to switch from CW-wide to USB.
(I used an old rig, therefore there is no display indication.)
73 Jindra
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by VE7BGP on October 10, 2002
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Packet woes! I have been operating packet on and off for 5 or 6 years now. For about 6 weeks I could not figure what was wrong with checking into my local BBS station. I could sometimes connect and after that I had trouble receiving the BBS. I could connect with a more distant BBS it worked but not well. One day I was talking to the sysop of the local bbs and he assured me I was putting in a great signal and I looked on the display of my fancy IC-706MKIIG it dawned on me what was wrong. I had the DSP functions for autonotch and noise reduction switched on. I shut down the DSP functions and bang I could connect and get 100 messages listed very fast again. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the AGWPe and terminal programs and playing with every setting to no avail. I sure felt stupid when I found out what I done. I hope this qualifies me for this column.
73 Gerry
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by W4SWS on October 11, 2002
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1.Thinking your on 7.110 and actually being on 7.010 and having someone question your 5 WPM code speed.
2.Not having a clear understanding of what a "clarifier" does and spending several days pounding out unanswered CQ's. Really made a lot of friends with that one.
3. 30ft pvc masts should not be erected alone and without the benefit of a hardhat.
4. Tri-mag antenna mounts WILL mess up a paint job, crack glass and make a terrible ruckus being drug along beside your vehicle.
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by KD2E on October 11, 2002
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How 'bout rig switches??
TR4C ext. receiver switch
TS520 SG switch
TS900 ext VFO switch
I've gotten bit by all of these...more than once!
...Dave
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by KA0GCN on October 11, 2002
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Talk about stupid tricks. Well this evening I dusted off my old FT-227R 2 meter rig and hooked it up to the power supply. I turned on the switch on the radio and nothing lite up. No lights or anything. I checked the fuse, made sure the wires had no breaks and still nothing. Then all of a sudden it hit me. The light on the power supply was not on. I flipped the switch on the power supply and the rig came to life, and I made a 2 meter contact. Oh well, I have only been a ham for 23 years and have an extra class ticket....but just not up to speed on power supplies.......
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by K2WH on October 12, 2002
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My best was the day I went into an indoor parking garage in NYC and forgetting about the antenna on top of the 4x4, I proceeded down the ramp breaking every single flourescent tube overhead (about 10 of em) with the glass and powder crashing down on the jeep and the down ramp.
The garage operator looked at me with was really pissed and I was really embarrassed. I paid for the lights.
K2WH
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by K2WH on October 12, 2002
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How about using a slingshot to toss a 2 oz. lead weight and attached fishing line over a tree only to come down on the car windshield breaking it.
K2WH
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by KC0KFG on October 12, 2002
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ok guys time to tell another one of my life's stories newly licensed just bought my yaesu ft-1500 built a j-pole mounted it ok now we are ready just let me mount this swr meter in here and see what we got,hmmmmm thats funny its off the chart. after redoing all my coax and trying to everything else i realize i was using the swr meter incorrectly, you know how you calibrate the meter then take a reading well....... oh well just another day of learning
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by KB5SXH on October 13, 2002
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Okay, well, I've only been a ham for 12 or so years, and never done tower work. Well, I went off the the Marine Corps for four years (Infantry, where I got to play with some ropes...), and after I got out, I was at my first club meeting in several years. They were talking about putting an antenna up for a new repeater, asking for a volunteer to go up the tower with the club president to put the new antenna up. You could hear a pin drop. Well, I decided to volunteer, which gave everybody a lot of relief. I figured, how hard could it be? I've had to do the rock climbing thing...
Well, we went to the site, and after a 170 foot climb, I tied off to the tower and rested for about ten minutes... Shawn and I were deciding how to get the one antenna down that we had to move off of the tower, and we decided to lower it on a rope with a pulley, et cetera. I then commenced to tie the rope onto the antenna in a manner allowing total control of the thirty pound load on the way down. We unbolted the antena, and began to lower it by hand, and when I was holding on to the last six or so inches of the twelve foot antenna, I noticed that the way it was tied would cause the antenna to flip over, probably dragging our ground crew all over the place... Okay, after working the antenna back up into a stable position, taking a look at the clouds rolling in, noticing the increase in wind, and about 20minutes of re-engineering our antenna hauling apparatus, we were able to uneventfully lower the antenna, get the new one up, and drop two of the nuts that were supposed to hold it in place. Yeah, the exact kind of nut that you don't have extras of on hand...
Oh well.
73's
John
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by NI4L on October 13, 2002
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Years Ago I had just bought a new Kenwood TS-450. I was really happy to have such a nice rig, I walked into the shack with a hot cup of coffee in my hand, somehow or another i tripped spilling coffee all over the rig. After i cleaned it up i thought everything was fine. A few days later i noticed some of the knobs and buttons seemed a bit tight. I got in the truck rode up to the electronics store in town told them i needed something to clean some switches and buttons with, They handed me this big can of BIG BATH was the name of it. I thought Ok this should work. I got home and sat down in front of the radio. Shook the can really good and then started spraying it all over the front of the radio. I was turning knobs and pushing buttons Yes this is going to work, Then in sheer terror i noticed the front panel was changing color,from a dark grey to a light grey and now all the buttons were stuck and the knobs would not turn, the face plate started to melt right before my very eyes. It was really drooping right off the metal chassis,Looked like a TS-2000 curved and all. You know i never did get any money from that new design I think that is where they came up with the funny face on the 2000.
I grabbed the can and READ the instructions..... Do not spray on Plastic.
It hit me like a ton of bricks. Wow i sure was stupid and after 2 months of wating for all the buttons to come from Japan and 200.00 later I now know that a radio does not need a BIG BATH!
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by ab9ps on October 15, 2002
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I drove limos for a while a few years ago, during my 35 year hiatus from ham radio. One fine afternoon, music wafted from the 2 way radio, then the dispatcher came on commenting that someone was sitting on his mike. I started snickering about the poor dope not beware that if a driver were doing that, he would not be able to hear the dispatcher and that probably the offending transmitter would have captured the repeater and none of us could hear the dispatcher. Then I realized I was hearing the dispatcher, and caught on that the dispatcher's unit must somehow be recognized by the repeater and given control. When I had to take the car to the radio shop for repair of its power wiring, I asked the technician and he explained trunking radio.
Later I had a Motorola engineer as a passenger either in a limo or a cab. He said he had invented trunking radio, that analogue cellular phones were essentially the same technology, and that when digital cellular networks became prevalent, the bottom would fall out of the price of air time. Ten years later, it has.
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by VE9CES on October 15, 2002
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Sometimes learning what NOT to do is as important as learning what TO do...
VE1ABL and I were putting my 2 meter J-pole on the vent pipe on my roof. The building I live in has a VERY aggressive pitch to the roof. We put one ladder up to the eves, and one along the roof. Eric (VE1ABL) tells me not to worry, they've done this for years. BTW, he was on the ground. So, me, being full of piss and vinager, lashes the two ladders together.
So here I am, at the peak of the roof, trying to strap this antenna onto the pipe, when all of a sudden, the lashing comes undone! Fortunatly, my deathslide was fetched up when my leg hit the top rung on the first ladder.
Moral of the story: overkill isn't just for atomic warefare. If you think it's good enough, add some more. At least when it comes to securing ladders!
73 de VE9CES
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by AC7KZ on October 16, 2002
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One of the best articles I've seen.
I had a vertical antenna in a temporary location, and was in the process of moving it to a permanent home. I spent 3 hours re-routing coax, moving the antenna, and the radials.
Excited after moving the antenna, I powered up my Icom 706, and keyed the mike. The internal swr meter showed a bad match, and the radio would shut off. Frustrated, I changed bands and keyed it up. It did the same thing.
I went outside, checked the radials, the tuning on the antenna, and connectors. I fired up the radio again, the same thing happened.
I decided the new antenna location was bad. I disasembled everything, and moved the antenna back to the old location.
I fired up the radio, the same thing happened. I decided to give up and give it all a rest.
The next day, I decided to fight with it again. This time I went to fire up the radio. It wouldn't turn on.
I then realized that the Battery that I was running the radio was dead!!!!All along the battery didn't have enough "Juice" to run the radio.
I learned before beginning an amateur radio project, get enough rest the night before, and first check on the power source.
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(MORE) Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by W5WZ on October 17, 2002
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This is sure fun!
I was first licensed in 1997, and quickly upgraded to extra. My first HF rig was a Kenwood TS-430, and about a year later I traded for an Icom IC-751A.
#1
Now, this exact Stupid Amateur Trick happened, not just once or twice, but many times. The configuration of the AF gain and RF power knobs on the 430 and 751 was concentric, however the AF was the outer ring on one rig and the inner knob on the other. Many times, I'd spend much time figuring out why I had no power output from the 751. Finally, exasperated, I would call my elmer. He'd simply ask "Did you check your RF power out?"
#2
Now I have an Icom 756, with the combined RF gain/squelch knob. Also have 3 toddlers in the house. There have been multiple times I've gotten dressed, grabbed a flashlight, and headed outside to look over the antennas because there was no received signals. Of course, the antenna were fine; upon return to the shack, I noticed that the S-meter was pegged fully to the right - turn the RF gain clockwise, and the problem is solved.
#3
Slingshot, fishing line, and lead sinker. Getting feet tangled in the line on the ground right as I released the weight. OR Unrolling all my fishing line, shooting the sinker into the tree, only to have the sinker and the other end of the line both about 20 feet above the ground!
--Scott, W5WZ, in Louisiana
PS - this is not an exhaustive list, just those that were the most frustrating to me!
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by AB2NM on October 17, 2002
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OK - not directly ham related, but you'll chuckle...
The XYL wanted a dimmer switch installed. One afternoon when no one was home (dumb mistake #1), I took a radio and plugged it into an outlet near the switch to be replaced, certain that the outlet was on the same circuit. Turned the radio on to the local rock station, and turned the volume way up. Walked downstairs to the breaker pannel and listened for the music. Okay - breaker 1 off - music still there - breaker 1 on. Breaker 2 off - music - 2 on. Went through the whole box. "Darn. Musta missed one breaker. Okay, breaker 1 off and stays off. Breaker 2 off. Three off. All breakers off. Music still on. Wiring problem? Main breaker off. Music on. Free power from the gas and electric? Let's take a look at that radio. Oh, its a portable radio with a power cord...and a battery compartment...and batteries..."
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by W5HTW on October 17, 2002
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To show I am not the only highly qualified professional who has never done stupid ham tricks (as in my earlier post) I feel it prudent (well, ok, maybe not, but I'm going to do it anyway) to post something about someone who is probably long since deceased. He tried to get that way while working with me, but somehow he survived that. I'm sure he made it at some point afterward.
Back in the days of tube radio equipment I was working for a (oh, God, am I that old?) Lafayette Radio Associate store, where I was assistant manager (which means I swept the floors once instead of twice a day) and the "chief repair tech." That was by nature of my 2nd Class phone ticket and my fairly recent Extra class ham ticket. I was "da dude." And back then, I was "da dude" without a beard, which I grew in years since then to cover the fat face. Ah, but that's another story.
CB radios, which we repaired, had tubes. And base station units would have perhaps 300 VDC floating around in the radio. One day I was at the work bench with a live CB set upside down on it, plugged it and making noise. It was recently repaired and was undergoing final voltage measurements. One of the fellows who worked there part time, an older man (much younger than I am now) with a beard, had a habit of looking over my shoulder, or the shoulder of the other repair tech. He smoked, and one of his cute tricks was to lean over the radio and blow a puff of cigarette smoke into it, then jump back and yell, "Hey,
what's that smoke?" He had caught me with that trick, and another guy as well.
This particular day he leaned a bit too far. And there really _was_ smoke. From his short beard. His chin touched a power supply lead and he let out the reserved cigarette smoke as well as some very smoky language, and he jumped backward. His yell was not the usual.
Angry and very embarrassed, he whirled, cursing, and kicked a cardboard box with all his strength. Did he plan to send it sailing across the room and have it crash into the far wall? Well, you know what they say about the "best kicked plans ..."
He could have kicked a field goal. Except for one thing. That box was an unopened case of D-size flashlight batteries. It weighed an easy 40 pounds. I don't think it moved a quarter inch.
With Smokey The Beard, and two broken toes, he departed for the hospital. I sealed the unharmed CB radio and returned it to the customer, albeit with a bit of "burned hair" odor.
Ed
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by K4IQT on October 18, 2002
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Back in 1959 when my first 40 meter dipole went up, it was built from used 300 ohm twinlead for both the antenna and feedline because it was free and I was a teenaged novice with no money. Over the next few months the SWR kept creeping up, so I retuned the antenna, finding it a bit long for 40 meter CW. This problem continued, and twice more I climbed the 40-foot hemlock in the back yard to prune the antenna length before the light of understanding dawned. Soon copperweld and an RG58 feedline went up in place of the old twinlead which had gradually stretched as the tree swayed on windy days, even with a pulley and counterweight!
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by KC5FM on October 18, 2002
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OK ... here's mine. I have not seen it yet, though one or two got close.
I have been licensed for over 30 years. Some would be surprised to know that I lasted that long.
When I was a much younger ham, I had one of those "glow in the dark" transmitters. You know the ones. They have 1KV on the finals with lights so bright you can read by them at night and they keep you warm in the winter.
I had it set up on my desk in my dorm room. Over the desk was a shelf.
I am fiddling with it powered up. On the back was an octal plug. Well, I could not see the bare wires on the back of that puppy because the transmitter was SO big that it took up most of the desk area. I reached my hand around the back and FOUND that octal plug with the bare wire.
When the juice hit me, I stood STRAIGHT up. Vertical movement was impeded by the shelf over the desk.
Good thing I had put a chair at the desk.
Had I not, I am sure I would have crumpled in a floor in a pile.
So, had I not electrocuted myself, I could have knocked myself silly. Now you know the reason for my condition. :)
73
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by N4JOH on October 20, 2002
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Reminds me of the fella watching the Blacksmith shape some new horse shoes. The observer being rather curious picked up one of the recently worked on Shoes and proceeded to drop it rather quickly.The Blacksmith glanced over at him and says "Was it Hot" and the fellow says "OH No, it doesn,t take me long to look at a Horse Shoe"!! We all have done it Randy welcome to the "Club"!!
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by KG4TQE on October 20, 2002
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That settles it! My wife is convinced that I'm nuts. While I was sitting here reading these(especially Ed's stories) and laughing my fool head off, she asked what I was laughing about. So I read part of a post to her and now she's convinced I'm crazy.
I assured her that it's amusing because I've done similar things with similar results in the past.
Thanks for an enjoyable read.
73 de KG4TQE, Don
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by W2RBA on October 21, 2002
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Truth is good for the soul, Randy, and you've done your share. My favorite story concerns a soldering iron -- one day, while engrossed in a schematic or something, I let my left arm rest -- across the business end of a soldering iron! But what's worse: I didn't feel anything, it was the smell or roasting flesh that made me aware that something was wrong... And then there's the time that I brushed my right hand against the rotor blades of the output capactitor in my old Galaxy V MkII -- there are still scars visible from the 850v shock. Come to think of it, I could probably relate an entire history of my early days in ham radio from reading the scars on my hands and wrists. And that's not all I've, uh, mistakenly done, but time's too short...!
73,
Joe, W2RBA
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by ARKCRO on October 21, 2002
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THERE SURE ARE A LOT OF POSTINGS UNDER THIS LISTING?????????????
................................Amateur's........................
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by KB5IYB on October 21, 2002
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Gee where do I start.. After admiring my new long wire antenna, I rushed into the shack to hook everything up, the tuner was rather tricky but a good match. I called CQ for 40 minutes and nothing, had the band gone dead? nope, tuned up on the ground wire.
Or maybe while on a Dx-pedition I hooked the Yaesu FT890 radio into the Kenwood power supply, hey, the plugs matched. Well Kenwood switches the PS with 110 volts in the radio, Yaesu's dont. It's amazing how many smoke capsules let loose inside the radio. The tech at Yaesu thought it took lightning strike.
Spent the rest of the time looking stupid.......
p.s. dumb solder stories, never hold two wires together at the ends and solder them with the iron held in your teeth. As the wires burnt both fingers when the solder flowed, the iron burnt the carpet when I screamed.
So many stories so little space.
73
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by WA9UAA on October 21, 2002
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Hi All,
Here's one I haven't seen yet...When I was about 12 I had asked for, and got, a Model "T" ignition
coil for Christmas. The first time I tried it out I connected 6 "D" cells in series. The vibrator worked
fine but I didn't see any other effects. I picked it up with both hands across the output and negative
connections and got up from across the room. PHEW! I had alot of fun with that coil.....
73,
Rob
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by WA9UAA on October 21, 2002
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Hi All,
Here's one I haven't seen yet...When I was about 12 I had asked for, and got, a Model "T" ignition
coil for Christmas. The first time I tried it out I connected 6 "D" cells in series. The vibrator worked
fine but I didn't see any other effects. I picked it up with both hands across the output and negative
connections and got up from across the room. PHEW! I had alot of fun with that coil.....
73,
Rob
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by KC7CJO on October 22, 2002
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I've been a ham for over 20 years and I think the DUMBEST thing I've ever done was to not ensure that my Swan 500C was properly plugged in!
It has a two prong, NON-phased plug and would create a floating ground of around 200 vac. NOT something you want to grab hold of if you are grounded! I was thrown across the room several times before getting rid of the rig. :(
Rod
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by KD7PKO on October 24, 2002
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OK, this is sick and I admit to it, which is more sick.......... I entered "naked soldering" into Google today. Yeah I know, it is sick, but somehow I don't think I am the only one!?!?!
Anyhoo, Google returned 3,670 results. And none of them appeared to be related to those, well, sites your XYL/spouse/friends/pastor might look poorly on!
No I did not visit all three thousand plus sites...... What I did find interesting is that of the few I did visit, this naked soldering thing seems well accepted by the electronics industry?!?!?
So I have decided to give it a try. If anybody has any suggested explanations I might use while seeking treatment in the emergency room, I am all ears. hi (sizzle sizzle) hi (pop pop) hi (that's gonna leave a mark).................hi........help..........hi.........
73/88,
Chris-KD7PKO
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by W4KSR on October 25, 2002
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W1RG: Been there, done that! I did it with a Heathkit SB-401.
I have a friend that had the stuck mic syndrome on the local repeater. Unfortunatly on this particular day, he had another ham friend in the car, having a fairly interesting conversation, when all of a sudden a VERY loud noise that sounded like breaking wind. Yes, the ham in the passenger seat had, and to make it worse, it was the old stink bomb. The conversation had some VERY interesting words after that!
My own act of stupidity, was I was getting ready to go somewhere, and I had my Alinco DJ-F1T with me. I had other stuff in my hand, so I laid the HT on the roof (There was a luggage rack there). So, having loaded my stuff in the car. I proceeded off down the road. About a mile down, after going through a couple of turns, and a hill, I wondered where my HT was. I figured I left it back home, so turned around in this bumpy driveway. I heard a clunking sound, and figured it was just my new antenna wobbling. I got home, and went into the house...No radio. And then it hit me!!! I had left the radio on the roof. Looked, and it was GONE. Checked the driveway, the road near my house, not there. Then I remembered when I realized the radio was missing, and that funny clunking noise. So I rode back down to the turnaround point. There it was! However, it was in the road, in about 100 pieces. It had lodged in the back part of the luggage rack until I had made that turn. If only I had realized earlier, I could've just reached up, and picked the radio off the roof. It sure made for some good conversation at the next hamfest (I took the pieces, and displayed them on the table with a sign on what NOT to do with your HT!)
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by KB3HFP on October 26, 2002
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What? Stupid ham tricks? That would probably be my entire life as a ham operator... :-
#1 - The best one happened on one of my first days as a ham. I had an old Kenwood HT with no PL tone capability, so I was used to being dropped out of the local repeaters. One day I was scanning around, so I keyed up a favorite repeater. Nothing. Keyed up another repeater. Nothing. Then I keyed up just about every repeater in town, and still didn't hear anything. No 'roger beep' and the people talking were ignoring me! So I'm trying to figure out how all fifteen local repeaters could have tones on when suddenly realize that my problem would be the "transmitter off switch."
#2 - Putting the soldering iron down on the plastic plate.
#3 - Advertising a URL change for a local net's website on the local Public Service net (Oops, sorry Net Control. Wrong net.)
#4 - Walking through my room, stepping on coax on the floor, squishing PL252, oops!
#5 - The strange way I always say my call "Kaybeethracheffpee" all in about 1 millisecond.
#6 - Little sisters yelling out strange phontetics during net checkins.
#7 - Worrying about my rig being broken and realizing it was the mic battery.
#8 - Sitting in the car going to Dayton and realizing I forgot the scanner. Duh.
#9 - Dayton. Buying an old Motorola PS radios that <i>could</i> be converted to 2m for five dollars. Seeing similar items for $1 and dumpsterdivable on Sunday.
And many many more... :-)
73 de Michael / kb3hfp / www.kb3hfp.com
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by KB3HFP on October 26, 2002
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What? Stupid ham tricks? That would probably be my entire life as a ham operator... :-
#1 - The best one happened on one of my first days as a ham. I had an old Kenwood HT with no PL tone capability, so I was used to being dropped out of the local repeaters. One day I was scanning around, so I keyed up a favorite repeater. Nothing. Keyed up another repeater. Nothing. Then I keyed up just about every repeater in town, and still didn't hear anything. No 'roger beep' and the people talking were ignoring me! So I'm trying to figure out how all fifteen local repeaters could have tones on when suddenly realize that my problem would be the "transmitter off switch."
#2 - Putting the soldering iron down on the plastic plate.
#3 - Advertising a URL change for a local net's website on the local Public Service net (Oops, sorry Net Control. Wrong net.)
#4 - Walking through my room, stepping on coax on the floor, squishing PL252, oops!
#5 - The strange way I always say my call "Kaybeethracheffpee" all in about 1 millisecond.
#6 - Little sisters yelling out strange phontetics during net checkins.
#7 - Worrying about my rig being broken and realizing it was the mic battery.
#8 - Sitting in the car going to Dayton and realizing I forgot the scanner. Duh.
#9 - Dayton. Buying an old Motorola PS radios that <i>could</i> be converted to 2m for five dollars. Seeing similar items for $1 and dumpsterdivable on Sunday.
And many many more... :-)
73 de Michael / kb3hfp / www.kb3hfp.com
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by KB3HFP on October 26, 2002
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Mail this to a friend!
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What? Stupid ham tricks? That would probably be my entire life as a ham operator... :-
#1 - The best one happened on one of my first days as a ham. I had an old Kenwood HT with no PL tone capability, so I was used to being dropped out of the local repeaters. One day I was scanning around, so I keyed up a favorite repeater. Nothing. Keyed up another repeater. Nothing. Then I keyed up just about every repeater in town, and still didn't hear anything. No 'roger beep' and the people talking were ignoring me! So I'm trying to figure out how all fifteen local repeaters could have tones on when suddenly realize that my problem would be the "transmitter off switch."
#2 - Putting the soldering iron down on the plastic plate.
#3 - Advertising a URL change for a local net's website on the local Public Service net (Oops, sorry Net Control. Wrong net.)
#4 - Walking through my room, stepping on coax on the floor, squishing PL252, oops!
#5 - The strange way I always say my call "Kaybeethracheffpee" all in about 1 millisecond.
#6 - Little sisters yelling out strange phontetics during net checkins.
#7 - Worrying about my rig being broken and realizing it was the mic battery.
#8 - Sitting in the car going to Dayton and realizing I forgot the scanner. Duh.
#9 - Dayton. Buying an old Motorola PS radios that <i>could</i> be converted to 2m for five dollars. Seeing similar items for $1 and dumpsterdivable on Sunday.
And many many more... :-)
73 de Michael / kb3hfp / www.kb3hfp.com
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by WA9SVD on October 26, 2002
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ME? Nope. I've never done any "Stupid Amateur Tricks." NADA. Never.
Dumb, sure. Silly, quite a few. Ridiculous? More than I can remember. But Stupid? NO! <ROFL>
The best one that comes to mind is trying to tin the leads of the soldering gun to put a new plug on the line cord... a few milliseconds later - DUH! No WONDER it isn't working!
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by KX8N on October 26, 2002
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I found out yesterday that the ICOM 2100h can handle transmitting short bursts of full power without any antenna or feedline, without burning up. One of the pitfalls of operating stealth from an apartment, when you have to run some coax in the window when you operate. Sometimes you forget (fortunately for my radio, that doesn't happen too often :)
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by KX8N on October 26, 2002
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I have to add another one while I'm at it:
A few years ago I had a Kenwood TS-440, and I was on 20 meters. My son, who was then 4 years old, wanted to play with the knobs and such. I was listening to a DX pileup, waiting for my chance, but I decided it could wait. So I turned the rig off, and the power supply, and let him fiddle around (with the rig being off, there wasn't much he could do to it). So he played and played while I sat there. I decided that we had both had enough, so I started asking him to leave the room, and he wouldn't. I reached down and turned the power supply back on, then the rig. What I didn't know was that my son, while playing with the controls, had pressed and LOCKED the PTT button on the desk mic.
I proceeded to tell the whole pileup "if you don't go now, I'm gonna get mad!"
Sad thing is, with all of the operators yelling their call feverishly to the DX, I doubt anyone noticed... If they did, they must have been laughing too hard to say anything.
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by WB2TPS on November 2, 2002
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When my kids were little I was always looking for a way to keep them amused so I could get some chores done.
My oldest liked to sing, so I would switch in the dummy load and turn on the monitor scope. With the VOX on she would sing into the microphone and watch her voice on the scope.....
One Saturday afternoon, I was waiting for some DX to show up on 20M. The rig was tuned up, the 2KW AMP. in line and the beam selected. I went about finishing some Honey-do's.
At one point I passed by the shack and heard an irate voice come throught the receiver "Someone get that kid off the radio"!!!
Yup, there was my daughter singing into the mic and burning a hole in 20M....
The same kid, as a teenager was playing with my D-104 while on the phone. She locked the mic "on" and several hours later I noticed an odor in the shack..The 2M radio was HOT!!!
I unkeyed the mic and then heard a number of unkind comments from the repeater group......
I have finally learned to leave the radios off unless I am sitting in front of them.
Jim
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by KB0NLY on November 7, 2002
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Who hasn't done a few of the classics.
#1 Doing the absolute nicest job of soldering on a PL-259 making sure to neatly solder all four holes to the braid, stopping to look over your work and admire how neatly you did it. Then the horror of also noticing the outer shell still sitting on the desk.
#2 Various bad run-ins with soldering irons, letting out a yell with an attached string of four letter words after burning a significant appendage and in my case turning around to discover my son sitting in the door way wondering what all those funny words daddy just yelled are.
#3 Problems with some new fangled radio with to many bells and whistles, i have seen some that NASA technicians wouldn't want to turn on.
#4 Doing any one of the above or any others on a daily basis.
Heck, what's Ham Radio, without the smell of something burning?
73,
Scott, KBØNLY
www.qsl.net/kb0nly
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by W6DPS on January 3, 2003
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A couple of years ago I purchased a VHF/UHF dual needle power meter. I hooked it up and was aghast to see a nearly infinite SWR on an antenna that looked great during the temporary connection of an analyzer.
The reflected power needle pegged, and stayed higher than the forward power needle no matter how much I lowered my output power.
I was getting the ladder out to start climbing on the roof to see what happened to the antenna, when I decided to take the meter with me, with a short jumper and an HT, so I could monitor the antenna while repairing/adjusting.
As I started to disconnect the meter I noticed I had hooked it up backwards. The connectors were opposite the layout that I expected. Once I turned things around my antenna problem seemed quite cured.
Yes, I is a (Low Code) Extra....
73's de Dave, W6DPS
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by WA2JJH on January 25, 2003
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I will try to get my cat to copy CW. I think nailing Jello to a tree would be easier.Blaming it on the cat sounds good to me. Old saying...Never mind the problem, fix the blame!
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by K8YSV on January 30, 2003
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Let's see, where do I start?...
I once borrowed a friend's 2 meter all-mode rig and decided that I wanted to use the antenna my dual bander was hooked to (TM-733). Unfortunately, I wanted to monitor the sideband calling frequency on one rig and the local repeater on the other. I've got it! a TEE connector for the coax! Hey! there's somebody on 2 meter SSB calling CQ! I'll answer him. Yep, 100 watts directly into the 733. But only on voice peaks... Now whay can't I hear anything on the 733? Duh...
That was then....This is now. Field Day 2002. For the GOTA station, one of the guys set up a 3-element 6 meter yagi on a 20 foot pole. We then bungied the bottom to the pavilion we were operating from, thus allowing us to rotate the antenna nicely. Anybody know which direction north is? Pull out the trusty compass and find out. OK, now all we've gotta do is point the antenna there and mark north on the pole. Hey, turn the beam east! It IS pointing east. Can't be, the pole says north! Umm...maybe we shoulda marked the ground instead...
Same Field Day. We wanted to make sure we had enough power to run all our equipment, so we got two generators. One of which was a really quiet 3KW Honda. Religiously made sure they were both filled with fuel. Problem was, the Honda was so quiet, that it quit in the middle of the night and we didn't hear it stop. Doesn't really matter. Nobody ever plugged anything into that generator anyway... Oops. Guess we didn't need it after all...
Rest assured, this is a mere sample :)
Jeff
K8YSV
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by WD8CIV on February 26, 2003
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Ah, the stupid ham tricks aren't reserved for the hams I'm afraid.
1) When I studied electronics at the vocational high school, we had juniors and seniors in the same lab. One junior was helping a senior repair a stereo. The senior asked for the soldering iron, and the junior handed it to him. Point first, of course. The senior grabbed it, felt the burn, dropped it, and shouted something about "stupid juniors who don't know which end of the soldering iron is hot." One of the other seniors, who had seen the entire show, reminded him about the "stupid seniors who don't know which end of the soldering iron not to grab."
2) A senior in the same class was an EMT and CBer. He kept a scanner in his truck to listen for rescue calls, and of course the CB radio (and amplifier). One night he heard a call on the local Highway Patrol frequency: "Breaker one-nine, are there any bears on Route 33?" A few minutes later he heard the same voice make the same call on the CB. He called the guy back and said, "So where ARE you anyway, Smokey?" Somebody had grabbed the wrong microphone.
3) Then there was the ham who, during a power outage, wanted to check with the guys on the local repeater to see how widespread the outage was. His batteries were dead, but no problem (he thought), he'd just plug it into the charger. (I waited almost an hour before realizing it wasn't going to work.)
Dave
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Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by G7HEU on March 18, 2003
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Randy
Thanks alot for starting a topic which made me laugh aloud when I was supposed to working!
My best 'S.A.T.' to date was years ago before I was liscensed. I'd been to a radio rally and bought a beautiful old Collins TCS reciever, (WW2 vintage).
It was my first experience of valves, (tubes), and in my haste to get the thing working I connected the heater supply up with some thin cable I had to hand.
It was certainly quite exciting to watch the insulation on both wires have a 'burn off' race to see which would strip itself first!
Red hot and glowing they burnt a hole in the carpet before I could get to the power switch.
Disapointingly there never was a BANG - not sure why but continued to use the radio for many years.
Cheers
Stephen.
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RE: Stupid Amateur Tricks 101
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by KC8WCW on April 13, 2003
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For what it's worth, the term "Amateur" in Ham radio has no implication whatsoever with regard to your competency or skill level. It ONLY implies that you are not permitted by law, to obtain any type of compensation for services rendered. Some Hams are far more informed than many so called "Professionals" who are routinely payed for their services.
KC8WCW
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