Radio That Wasn’t Working Is Now Working
By WBØRUR, on the scene
PETALUMA, Calif. — A local amateur radio operator is excited and “mad as heck” that a radio which had been non-functional for six weeks is now working perfectly with no apparent issues.
“I don’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth,” says Tom Jeffries, a ham radio operator since 1957. “I like to work on my own gear. But this one has me fit to be tied.”
The Swan 350C transceiver stopped working on January 5, when the plate current climbed above 500 milliamperes and the device emitted a high pitched squeal, followed by the slight odor of bacon.
“After that, it wouldn’t do a thing,” says Jeffries. “The dial light would come on, but that was it. I’ve
tried everything to get it back on the air. Nothing worked.”
Jeffries shelved the project until a day ago, when his mother in law showed up unexpectedly with new swatches of couch fabric. He suddenly had “an emergency project to work on in the shack.”
Pulling the Swan off the shelf and plugging it in, the boat anchor fired up on 20 meter SSB with no issue.
“At first, I was like – what the heck! I was irritated that I couldn’t find the cause of the original issue. But now it works like a champ! And it STILL emits that lovely bacon odor!”
I hate it when that happens. Have had similiar problems with a Johnson Valiant that works fine, except for ONE time when it blew out the fuse box in the house.
If it wasn't for FM ("frequency" magic), half of the equipment in my shack wouldn't work!
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