[SOC] THIS IS WITHOUT A DOUBT...

[Rob Matherly]

.......THE MOST IGNORANT, SOC MEMBERSHIP DESERVING THING I HAVE EVER DONE IN 
MY ENTIRE LIFE!!!!!!!!

As some of you know, for the last year and a half or so I have had a Drake 
TR-3 of mine that wasn't working.  We all know the story.  It was fine, I 
left the room, came back, and all I had from the speaker were pops and hisses.

Anyhoo, this week I got a serious bug up my butt to get this thing fixed.  I 
even went to the lenghts of dragging it up to a fellow ham's workbench so I 
could use his waaaaaay better test equipment.

Worked on it up there for about 3 hours yesterday.  Tested every tube, went 
over the wiring with a fine tooth comb, and didn't turn up a thing.  The plan 
was to leave it there and come back the next week to go over it with a signal 
injector, check socket voltages, etc.

I get a call tonight.

"Your radio is fixed."

"WHAT?" I ask.

"It's fixed.  Come get it."

"What was wrong?"

"Operator error."

"Huh?"

"Operator error."

"Whaddya mean?"

"The VOX amp was cranked up all the way and the S-Meter zero pot was cranked 
so far down that your S-Meter was pegging."

"WHAT?"

"You heard me."

"How in the *(&$ did that happen when I was out of the room?"

"Don't get mad now, I'm just telling you what happened."

"Are you sure it's fixed?"

"What do you mean am I sure it's fixed?  I was just listening to SSTV on 20 
meters!"

So I go pick it up, thank him, bring it home, hook it up, plug in a 
speaker... and I hear.... STUFF OTHER THAN POPS AND HISSES!!!  I HEAR CW!  I 
HEAR SIDEBAND!  I HEAR PSK-31!  I HEAR RTTY!

GAAAAARRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hereby ask that I now be granted "World's Best SOC" for my idiocy in not 
only checking something that simple, but for probably being the f&*%^$# idiot 
that was playing around with the pots, left the room, forgot that he was 
playing around with them.....

Oh well... at least my Drake works (not that it ever didn't!)

-- 
><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
                 72-73-OO
              (W)(0)(J)(R)(M)
 Rob Matherly - Plano, Iowa - EN30ls
        http://www.qsl.net/w0jrm
AIM-w0jrm; ICQ-114690148; Y!-w0jrm
 ARRL -- FPqrp -330 -- IA QRP #143
       SOC #497 -- QRPp-I #19