I'm such a Bozo......

[WX2MIG]

I know I've told you guys that I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, and today was another one of those days when I proved it......

I got a used MFJ-949C antenna tuner that did not come with a 12 VDC cable and plug to power the SWR/Power meter light. So I look into what it takes to light up this meter, and order a wall wart power supply from HRO.
It shows up in two days, I open up the package, go to plug it in, and realize it has the wrong type of plug. Evidently the wall wart I got is for the later models, and not the older "C" model which takes a 2.5mm phone plug.
I go to the local Rat Shack and buy a pack of two 2.5mm phone plugs, and melt the first one trying to solder the wires to it. Then being careful not to repeat that mistake, I proceed to melt the second plug trying to solder the wires to it......(typical cheap Rat Shack junk).....:glare:

So now I get to thinking....(and this is where things usually turn to shit)....I open up the tuner, remove the 12 VDC plug socket, run the wires from the wall wart straight into the back of the cabinet through the plug socket hole, and wire the power supply direct to the meter. I then put the cabinet back together, attach the ground and coax, fire the radio up, and......THE METER NO LONGER WORKS....:headbang

I take everything back off, open the cabinet, check all my connections and make sure I didn't pull any wires off, everything looks right but I notice the meter is a little loose, so I break out the hot melt glue gun, and weld it back into place. Button up, re-attach, fire up the radio, and......IT STILL DOESN'T WORK.......:headbang

Now I'm scratching my head wondering what I could possibly have done to render the meter inoperable, looking at new Vectronics tuners on the internet, and kicking myself in the ass all at the same time......

Then the light bulb in my head finally flickers to life, and it occurred to me that by removing the plug socket from the cabinet, and wiring the power supply direct, I removed the ground to the meter.....

Back into the cabinet I go, attach a pigtail ground wire to the negative line, and attach it to the cabinet, button everything up, attach all my leads, turn on the radio...again....and presto....the meter once again functions......

I need an aspirin now......

 

[Hutch]

And now you feel proud because you fixed a problem by actually understanding how things work. Making a mistake isn't a bad thing it's not learning from it and it looks like you learned from yours, good stuff. Enjoy your tuner and the meter with lights now

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

Yep, some days it just doesn't pay to get out of bed. Good night all.

 

[Moleculo]

That's like Beetle's corollary he posted somewhere else: If it's not broke, fix it until it is

 

[Beetle]

That's like Beetle's corollary he posted somewhere else: If it's not broke, fix it until it is

And confirmed once again! :headbang

 

[WX2MIG]

That's like Beetle's corollary he posted somewhere else: If it's not broke, fix it until it is

I'll tell ya Mole, I'm beginning to think Beetle is my long lost brother from a different mother.....(or something like that)......

I had a perfectly good and functional antenna tuner sitting in front of me, so what if the meter didn't light up, I do have lights out there, and I could see it perfectly well, but I wasn't satisfied until I fixed something that wasn't broke until it was broke. I'm just glad I was finally able to figure out how I broke it, and was able to fix it again....and this time with the addition of a light too....

Just this morning I saw a photo of another HAM's set-up, he had a transceiver the approximate size of my TS-130S, and he had his radio stacked on top of his MFJ-949, I thought to myself....."hey, I like that better than the way I have the tuner on top of the radio, I think I'll switch it around".......

Then when I got out to the shack I had a flashback of yesterday's events, and stopped myself from doing it, it all works perfectly fine the way it is right now, no need to raise my aggravation level any higher.....

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

Just this morning I saw a photo of another HAM's set-up, he had a transceiver the approximate size of my TS-130S, and he had his radio stacked on top of his MFJ-949, I thought to myself....."hey, I like that better than the way I have the tuner on top of the radio, I think I'll switch it around".......

Then when I got out to the shack I had a flashback of yesterday's events, and stopped myself from doing it, it all works perfectly fine the way it is right now, no need to raise my aggravation level any higher.....

Yep, sure fire way to find out which coax jumper cables were just about ready to go bad on you.