[VHFcontesting] 144 Sprint

[Herb Krumich via VHFcontesting]

What a special day. I had a young gentleman from our local club stop up to operate,
I was doing my best to get him familiar with the operating system. 
When the contest started the rig was running as usual. Slowly hunting and pecking. 
He had worked about 30 stations when I noticed the receiver gain was very low. I checked the SWR and immediately shut down. We had 500 watts of reflected power. This system has ran flawlessly for the better of 10 years. Has to be a build up of condensation from the bad winter months. Hopefully in the jumper cable.
Meanwhile I was running my computerized engraving machine in the other room. And when I went to check it's progress, it had shut down. To make a long story short, the power supply in the computer burnt up. A small transformer got so hot, it burnt the circuit board.
I've been making trophies for over 40 years for young kids. There is nothing like seeing a seven year old light up when he has his prize in hand.
Yesterday I had to drive 300 miles to but a used engraving machine similiar to the one I have. It turns out this unit was not working either, but by 1 am this morning we pieced both units together, and was able to get one unit working.
Monday was not a good day, but when the thought of living in the Pocono's vs. perhaps being in Iraq or Iran, things are good
73's Herb K2LNS