by K5KAC[1], on the scene

LONG PINE, NEBRASKA - "I guess I didn't really know what I was getting myself into," said Trey Arend, blankly staring at his Hallicrafters SR-150 as it perfectly received an 80m roundtable.

Arend bought his first Boat Anchor fiveÿyears ago imagining long evenings aligning oscillators and testing tubes. "It was going to be a labor of love," he said, spinning the precision-calibrated VFO. He leans down and checks into the net, asking for a signal report. He is met with "59s" and "20 overs." He regularly hears "great audio, old man" blasting from the speaker. "Armchair copy!"

"I don't know what I am doing wrong," Arend says as he flicks off the well-grounded and regulated power supply. "I have tried everything. Bumping the desk hard enough to knock it out of alignment; occasional coffee spills. I am at a loss."

"I bought this oscilloscope, tube tester, and digital multimeter expecting to use it," he says. Arend wipes a layer of dust from the pristine boxes. "I guess I'll mark them up a bit and try to offload them at the next hamfest."

As of press time Arend was searching classifieds for a "worked-the-last-time-I-turned-it-on" Swan 350A.

### HamHijinks.com

ÿphoto credit: Shankland (surprised!)[2] via photopin[3] (license)[4]


[1] http://qrz.com/db/k5kac
[2] http://www.flickr.com/photos/58907237@N00/3941744369
[3] http://photopin.com
[4] https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/

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