[Elecraft] Tuner bug

[Mike Flowers]

I was fortunate to have met Rear Admiral Grace Hopper at a Holiday reception when I worked as a DoD contractor at the Washington Navy Yard in 1985.   I had been using COBOL for programming business systems for years and had the opportunity to thank her for it.   She remarked that she was 'particularly proud' of that accomplishment.

I also think that the term 'bug' meaning an error or anomaly predates digital computers.  My Father was trained during WW2 by the UASAAF in avionics and told me there were a lot of 'bugs' in the early airborne radar systems.   I don't think my Father knew anything at all about computers ...

- 73 and good DX de Mike, K6MKF, NCDXC Secretary

> -----Original Message-----
> From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net <elecraft-
> bounces at mailman.qth.net> On Behalf Of Dick Dievendorff
> Sent: Saturday, November 07, 2020 10:58
> To: James Driskell <jmdriskell at msn.com>
> Cc: Elecraft Reflector <elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Tuner bug
> 
> I think the term predates computers, but I have heard the story.
> 
> https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/grace-hoppers-bug
> 
> 73 de Dick, K6KR
> 
> > On Nov 7, 2020, at 10:53, James Driskell <jmdriskell at msn.com> wrote:
> >
> > The first bugs in the old large 1st generation computers were actually insects
> (bugs) that were raising havoc with the insulation.  Hence, "bugs" has become
> our favorite term!
> >
> > 73,
> >
> > Jim, W7OWI
> >
> > ________________________________
> > From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net
> > <elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net> on behalf of Andy Durbin
> > <a.durbin at msn.com>
> > Sent: Saturday, November 7, 2020 07:50
> > To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net <elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
> > Subject: [Elecraft] Tuner bug
> >
> > My top band antenna is an OCF wire running round my back yard wall at
> about 5 ft above ground.  It has been through a number of iterations to make
> it tunable on 160 and to handle 500 W.
> >
> > 500 W capability was achieved with a home brew feed point L match
> consisting of a large air-spaced variable capacitor and an inductor wound on
> PVC pipe.  It worked fine until the small hours of Saturday morning when the
> SWR jumped to a really high value and tripped my KPA500 reflected power
> monitor.   Some quick tests showed it worked fine up to about 200 W but
> anything over that gave an instant transition from low SWR to very high SWR.
> All easily seen in my station controller's data log.   It seemed likely there was
> an insulation breakdown somewhere, but where?
> >
> > Careful inspection of the air-spaced variable revealed a small bug between
> the plates.  It was carefully extracted and viewed under the microscope.  It
> was well charred!
> >
> > Quick check on 160 m and the antenna will handle 500 W again.  Now ready
> to try for a few missing states in ARRL Sweep Stakes.
> >
> > Not all bugs are neatly categorized as either hardware or software.
> >
> > 73,
> > Andy, k3wyc
> >
> >
> > ______________________________________________________________
> > Elecraft mailing list
> > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> > Post: mailto:Elecraft at mailman.qth.net
> >
> > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email
> > list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to
> > jmdriskell at msn.com
> > ______________________________________________________________
> > Elecraft mailing list
> > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> > Post: mailto:Elecraft at mailman.qth.net
> >
> > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email
> > list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to
> > dick at elecraft.com
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:Elecraft at mailman.qth.net
> 
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message
> delivered to mike.flowers at gmail.com