[OKDXA] Bad Start

[Coy Day]

Hi All,

Murphy's law is alive and well.  We started off on our jaunt with Judy
driving and the pickup started acting up.  She panicked and didn't want to
drive anymore.  So somewhere in Kingfisher county, I decided that we should
head back home to see what was the matter.  As it turns out, I think we had
water in our gas.  On top of all that I was having problems with the
screwdriver antenna.  It was cutting out and causing me fits.  As it turns
out, it wasn't seated good in the base.  By the way, all of this checked out
beautifully last Wednesday.  :-(  When I finally got the antennas seated in
the base good, I happened to be on 15 meters.  The radio was going crazy so
I thought I was still having antenna problems.  Anyway, we headed home and
when we got here everything seemed to be working okay.  Not wanting to
venture too far, I sat in the driveway and made a few contacts then drove
across the river to Grady county and made a lot of contacts on 20 meters.
Then went on down to Caddo county line and made some more.  All of those
were on 20 meters.  Worked quite a few Europeans.  The pickup ran fine
through all of that, so I think it is okay now.  I made a contact on 15
finally and the guy said that RF was getting into the mike.  Aha, that's why
15 meters was acting so strange.  Anyway, I plan on heading west in the
morning, if the pickup is still okay and the antenna still works.  I'll do
my best to recoup.

Coy
------
Coy Day, N5OK, ARRL West Gulf Division Director,
RR 1 Box 254, Union City, OK 73090-9726   (405) 483-5632
mailto:n5ok@arrl.org   Web: http://home.att.net/~n5ok.ok/