Well yesterday was the third day of my four days off and this time around I have been feeling really crappy with a cold, the first time i have had a cold in at least three years. I forgot how miserable they can make you feel. I actually came down with it the last full day we had on vacation in Jamaica and it has been hanging on ever since. I still sound like a tin can full of marbles when I cough. Anyway I have not bothered with radio at all for many many months now and feeling better yesterday I decided to fire up the rig and see what was happening. Hmmmm......bands sounded dead. Oh wait.....the auto-tuner needs to be activated. Done. Hmmm.........no difference. OK Try again..........nothing seems to be happening. The TUNE button on the radio seems to have no effect and the tuner is not activating. Cables check out fine on the shack end. try again.....nothing. Thoughts now turn to the remote mounted tuner at the end of the house. The same end of the house that had six feet of snow piled up against it earlier this year. Hmmmm..........I looked out and saw the coax cable attached to the tuner and the ballanced feedline connected fine. Everything looks good but.........oh wait........where is the tuner control line? I cannot see it. Time to go outside and investigate further. Luckily it was above freezing yesterday and the sun was shining and since the tuner is on the south side of the house the huge snow bank was receding and was melted away from the house just enough to allow me to crawl over the side of the deck and squeeze in between the house and wall of snow. The fresh air felt good as did the warm sun and I simply slipped on a pair of boots and went outside in my short pants and shirt which I wear 365 days a year. Sure enough the heavy snow had pulled the control lead away from the auto tuner and simply needed to be reconnected by plugging the two pieces together. GREAT! DONE!. Now to perform my Spiderman routine and climb back along the narrow path between the house and snow bank to the deck stairs and crawl back up and over them to get back in the house. This the point that I was glad the boots fit tight on my legs but wish I had worn long pants as the snow was softened by the mild weather. Snow against the upper thighs is NOT that refreshing. OK back inside I turn the radio on again and press the TUNE button. AHA!! This time the TUNE function worked as it should and when the rig went into receive mode again the signals were MUCH better............for a short while. Apparently while I was outside we were in the beginnings of the effects of an X2 class CME which promptly rendered the daylight side of the planet practically useless for HF propagation especially in The Americas which took the brunt of the hit according to Spaceweather.com. I had solved my problem just in time to be greeted by dead bands. And they were dead too with very little heard for several hours. Oh well at least i will be ready for the next time the urge to play radio hits me.....as long as the urge to produce a CME does not hit Mother Nature at the same time again.
And it was a simple fix.