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Whoops Thread

ToddDubya

ToddDubya

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Well, today my groundskeeper made a mistake when he was mowing the back 40. I can't really fault him because he's been my groundskeeper since I was about 10 and never done anything like this before.

Think I can just wrap some Reynolds around it and cover it in tape?

1685480165736.png

I figured a whoops thread would be a good place for people to fess up when they eventually make their first mistake.
 
Ouch! :oops:


Looks like RG-213...depending on how long the continuous length is, it might be cheaper to cut out the messed up piece, install two good quality (Amphenol?) "N" connectors on the cut out ends and then put them together with an "N" double female. Good N connectors are allegedly waterproof (I'd still seal the joint though with coax-seal or something like that) and they have very little loss up into the GHz region.
 
ToddDubya said:
Well, today my groundskeeper made a mistake when he was mowing the back 40. I can't really fault him because he's been my groundskeeper since I was about 10 and never done anything like this before.

Think I can just wrap some Reynolds around it and cover it in tape?

View attachment 758047

I figured a whoops thread would be a good place for people to fess up when they eventually make their first mistake.
Click to expand...

It's hard to find good groundskeepers these days.

Can you splice antenna feeds or do you have to run a new line?
 
timbo said:
Ouch! :oops:


Looks like RG-213...depending on how long the continuous length is, it might be cheaper to cut out the messed up piece, install two good quality (Amphenol?) "N" connectors on the cut out ends and then put them together with an "N" double female. Good N connectors are allegedly waterproof (I'd still seal the joint though with coax-seal or something like that) and they have very little loss up into the GHz region.
Click to expand...
This - any half hearted repair is going to cause issues.
Ping that line with a TDR and you are goingto see a nasty discontinuity.
 
A recent WHOOPS comes to mind for me...I bought a pneumatic launcher last year to launch two ounce lead fishing weights over trees to pull up antennas. It has a spincast reel on it to hold the fishing line. For it's maiden flight out into the field behind my house, I pumped the air pressure to about 50psi and released the valve. It shot the weight out to a very impressive distance. I then realized I forgot to release the thumb release on the reel. DOH!

I never did find the weight. After that idiotic move, I proceeded to at least paint the weights with florescent orange paint.
 
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Fortunately there's enough slack I can cut out the bad section and reterminate it with a PL259. I've got some of that self amalgamating tape that does a nice job sealing up the end. Then some goo on the connection and I should be back in business. I'll hit it with the analyzer first just to be safe.

If that doesn't work I'll get a new cable and use this for jumpers. It's a 50' run. Or now about a 47' run.
 
pastera said:
This - any half hearted repair is going to cause issues.
Ping that line with a TDR and you are goingto see a nasty discontinuity.
Click to expand...
on a second glance, it might also be 9913 but either way, the N connector trick will work nicely. Resist the urge to use PL-259s for splicing coax...

EDIT: never mind...just saw your previous post. Carry on.
 
How’s the soil out there? Maybe rent a trencher and just put the cable underground. I had to hand-dig a shallow trench here in Southern NH as the rocks are just inches below the surface.

I hate soldering remote terminators - getting the shield right is a PITA, even with a flame-based soldering iron.
 
MaverickNH said:
How’s the soil out there? Maybe rent a trencher and just put the cable underground. I had to hand-dig a shallow trench here in Southern NH as the rocks are just inches below the surface.

I hate soldering remote terminators - getting the shield right is a PITA, even with a flame-based soldering iron.
Click to expand...
About 8 years ago I just put it down on the lawn, and now it's buried. It's only exposed at the antenna and house ends. The groundskeeper has been mowing over top of it ever since with no problems, but this time maybe the drive wheel lifted it up just enough. It's also the first time the mower has been this close to that antenna, which was put up last summer, while the radials bury themselves (this is working worse).

Not for nothing, but the groundskeeper can't remember to f***ing REPLENISH when he takes a seltzer out of the fridge.
 
I was driving to FL for Christmas this year and had the FTM-6000r in the car. Instead of trying to find repeater activity and deal with all that, I decided to focus on the 2m calling frequency. First leg, very little activity. I heard one guy but we were going opposite directions so we were out of range pretty fast. Second leg would turn out to be a 17 hour drive due to the parking lot named I-95. Oh well, at least plenty of time to try and find other people stuck in the same crap. I called and called and called and never heard a peep. 10 hours later I realize I had never connected the coax. Fortunately the radio outsmarted me and didn't burn itself up. I ended up with a nice long QSO with a guy headed in the same direction.

I didn't have a lot of QSOs but I had a few. Two guys said I was their first 2m simplex contact ever; and one guy had been calling since he left the top of NY state. I had been pretty discouraged with it, but it really was nice to finally get through to a few people. I'm sure if I called more consistently I could have gotten more.
 
I've been having some trouble with my small travel CW key so I decided maybe the contact screws could use some polishing. I carefully sanded them with some 1200 grit, then carefully polished the longer of the two with some polishing compound, then carefully polished the shorter with some polishing compound, then dropped the shorter on my cluttered, disgusting basement floor. I crawled around for an hour with magnets and a flashlight with no success. I believe it's a #4 3/16" long, so barely larger than a nut. Stainless of course, so it would barely stick to a magnet. Gone.

I'm sure as soon as I buy more this one will turn up. That's the quickest way to find things.
 
Well shit. I was putting labels on the top of my FT-857s because Yaesu labeled the ports on the bottom, and I can never remember which one is for what. I was putting the last one on rig A when rig B threw itself off the counter onto the floor. I wasn't touching it or anything, it just wanted out. OF COURSE it landed on the VFO and mangled the encoder.

I think I was able to find a replacement on DigiKey. I'll find out when it gets here. I'll just have to cut the connector off the old encoder and solder it onto the new leads.

While I was at it I thought I'd try the hairdryer trick to fixing the tiger striped screen, but that didn't do anything. But when it fell, it also broke part of the external screen I bought so I don't have to rely on the tiger striped one. Hopefully that still works.

Looks like tomorrow I'll be printing a set of side rails for it. That definitely would have saved it tonight. Fingers crossed that the rig isn't just shot. It seemed to still do the things, but I didn't try putting it on the air.
 
ToddDubya said:
Well shit. I was putting labels on the top of my FT-857s because Yaesu labeled the ports on the bottom, and I can never remember which one is for what. I was putting the last one on rig A when rig B threw itself off the counter onto the floor. I wasn't touching it or anything, it just wanted out. OF COURSE it landed on the VFO and mangled the encoder.

I think I was able to find a replacement on DigiKey. I'll find out when it gets here. I'll just have to cut the connector off the old encoder and solder it onto the new leads.

While I was at it I thought I'd try the hairdryer trick to fixing the tiger striped screen, but that didn't do anything. But when it fell, it also broke part of the external screen I bought so I don't have to rely on the tiger striped one. Hopefully that still works.

Looks like tomorrow I'll be printing a set of side rails for it. That definitely would have saved it tonight. Fingers crossed that the rig isn't just shot. It seemed to still do the things, but I didn't try putting it on the air.
Click to expand...
One of my metacustomers* is a certain well-known local defense contractor. One day, we (my customer and I) were cruising around the plant to get to where we needed to do something. Driving you have to stop like every thirty feet for a crosswalk... and more often than not there's someone in it pushing a pushcart. I asked him about the preponderance of pushcarts. Apparently, someone at one point had been walking carrying some expensive piece of gear, and tripped or whatever and dropped it. Ever since, everything gets moved on pushcarts.

* Metacustomer = customer of a customer.
 

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