Greetings kids. You could say that we had an interesting morning by the broadest definition of the word. It started out ok. A bit dismal with mist and a temp of 21 C (70 F) but still it had promise. We drove for about 1 1/2 hours to Swatara State Park, which for some reason, my GPS did not acknowledge its existence. We arrived and got set up and ready to operate. I posted a self spot and started calling with my voice recorder (which is built into my rig). I started getting responses, but they did not hear me. WHAT??? The transmit light was coming on but they could not hear me. I did some field troubleshooting and discovered the culprit … the mic. The PTT button worked but it was not modulating. I said several choice words as I had no spare with me. Sigh. We decided to go do our shopping and head home.

Once I got home, I attached the mic from my FT450 to my FT891 and, LO! AND Behold! it transmitted. From my driveway I worked W1AW/1 with ease … sorta … my signal was weak to him but considering my location, it was good. SWMBO decided to stay home when I took off to activate Little Buffalo State Park US-1376.

It was raining when I arrived at my usual spot near the boat launch. Surprisingly, there were several people around doing things like walking their dogs. I set up and got on the air but soon the 23 C temperature and the 1000% humidity had the car unbearable. I was able to work 16 stations in a short time though propagation was up and down. The only birds I heard today were bluejays laughing at me.

The biggest thing to take from this is to always try the simplest fix first and also you will always find things in the last place you look. Kudos to SWMBO for putting up with me. Now I am going to sit here and interact with my katz.

Namaste, y’all and keep your stick on the ice!