[OKDXA] AF5CC is in the FT5ZM log!!!

[Roger Simpson]

I just looked at the latest log upload from FT5ZM.  I am happy to report that John, AF5CC, is in the log with a QSO on 20M CW. CONGRATULATIONS to John!! 

BTW, over here I had my computer literally “burn up”. Well, there were no flames but a burning smell was coming out of it and it completely quit working. It turned out to be a attachment plug in card for a pair of serial ports. My computer, like many “modern” ones, does NOT have any COM ports so I got a PCI plugin card with dual COM ports on it. The PCI card is the card that burned up. I took the case off my computer and I could easily smell the “burnt” resistor smell. It seemed like it was coming from the tailgate area of my PC. I took my PC downstairs and put it on the kitchen table under very bright light and then I noticed a burned area on a chip on the PCI card. I unplugged the PCI card from the motherboard and the burnt smell came out at the same time – so my nose did the job of isolating the problem. My semi obsolete ICOM gear and also my Yaesu rotor both use COM ports for communicating to a computer. I think most modern ham gear talks to your computer via USB. 

After all of this, it took me a while to get my stuff back together. I lost about a day and a half tearing up my shack. Last night I got things back together and I was able to work FT5ZM on 30m CW. 

Now that I’m back together, I am going to try to see if I can work FT5ZM on any band on RTTY. I’m glad I have my computer working again because, of course, I can’t work RTTY without a computer. If it was “just” CW or SSB I could work him without my computer using a paper log and then get my computer working later. 

73    Roger   K5RKS