That was quite an exciting night.
Started transmitting at 2200 on Tuesday night and later was getting reports
from John and Dex through their website postings. I decided to go to bed at
0100 and went down to the transmitter shed and switched off the PA and
exciter PSU. Came back into the house shack and checked the web sites only
to find good signals from Laurie and myself on the screen. Hurriedly
switched the transmitter back on and found the exciter on 72.4007. after
half an hour it was getting back to its nominal frequency of 72.4004
antenna.
By 0200 I was getting really tired and was considering leaving the
transmitter on while I went to bed and decided on a final check.
I looked through the back window of the house and was alarmed to see a
flickering red glow coming from the direction of the loading coil. It turned
out to be coming from the garden of the house bejond the thick tall hedge
the other side of the coil and was caused by a 10ft high internally
illuminated inflatable Father Christmas bobbing about in the wind. The kind
of Christmas tack that people festoon their houses with is getting a bit
silly!
I left the transmitter on all night and both John and Dex were receiving
signals until after it got ligh here in the UK. I shut down at 0845 and John
received the last 'O'.

Regards,
Peter, G3LDO

e-mail <[email protected]>

Web <http://web.ukonline.co.uk/g3ldo>