I headed out to tune the 20m ground plane and took the newly modified amp to test it before next weekend.
I realised something was wrong when I gave a s58al a lousy signal report and got a better one in exchange. I could hear people calling but, except for a few stations, all were way way down in the noise. Turns out one of the changes made to the amp was causing just enough current draw to prevent the relay contacts from physically releasing. I didn’t figure this out right until the end when I turned it off when QSYing to 40. Doh.
One could say that this was a very useful excursion and test, in that I uncovered this before next Saturday’s party.
Despite a 40+dB attenuator on receive, in addition to Albert, I still managed to work a couple of ZLs, VK4, VK8.
A bit embarrassing, nonetheless.
Andrew VK3JBL