[Elecraft] No matter what I do...

[V Cortina]

Hi folks.  Remember my last post about how the K1 I built in the spring and the KAT1 I built just now worked great, thereby depriving me of some "fun" troubleshooting?  Well, you're NOT going to believe this.

Since it really had no bearing on the story, I neglected to mention that I had a  K1 tilt stand, an RF probe, and a DL-1 dummy load on order from Elecraft.  Well, it arrived this morning (Monday the 5th).  I discovered it when I was leaving the house, and since I had an armful of other items, I "temporarily" put it on the roof of the car.  I know you know what's coming.

My intentions were to stop by the local diner, grab some lunch, then double back to the Kingston area (the nearest city) for some quick shopping.  Well I got about 3/4 the way to the diner, when it hit me.  The box!  Oh NO!  The BOX!  Obviously, I stopped immediately, and got out to check the roof, just in case it got caught on the roof rack, which obviously it did not.  I then made a high-speed U turn, and began to trace my steps, as it were, in a desperate attempt to find my missing stuff.  I got to the final county route which passes my property, and was only about 200 yards away from the tiny dead end cut-off to my driveway when it happened.

Since I had placed the box on the right side of the roof, I was thinking maybe it would have fallen off onto the right shoulder of what is now the oncoming lane from my perspective.  So, my eyes were firmly positioned to the far left of my lane, with regular glances in front of me to make sure I didn't crash.  Suddenly, in one of my forward glances, I noticed an object in my MY LANE, just about lined up with my left tires.  At 45+ M.P.H. and with the distance it was, avoiding it was impossible.  The realization hit me just as the front tire of the Subaru whacked the package, followed only a few hundred milliseconds by the rear tire.  I managed to stop about 70 yards downrange.  I backed up (small county road, no one coming), and picked up the package.  It had my name on it, and looked incredibly similar to the one I had just put on my roof only 5 minutes ago, except it had large tire marks on it, and looked like it had just been beaten up very badly.

Guess what?  I opened it up....

No damage whatsoever.  So help me.  The box and the little plastic peanuts had taken a severe pounding, but they gave their lives to protect the precious contents.  The circuit boards were untouched.  I even checked the diodes under a microscope, and they look OK.  Heck, even if they're broken, I will gladly buy new ones.

So it seems I won't be able to enjoy any troubleshooting fun no matter WHAT I do!


I need a few days off.


Vin Cortina  KR2F