LESSONS ONE ONLY LEARNS BY DOING!

As we all progress in ham radio/electronics we READ about all those things 'to watch out for'... 'to be wary of'.. 'to be aware of so WE don't do them ourselves'.

I'm NOT going to admit to ANY of these.. but.. well.. if you saw my palm.. you might ask 'Hey! What are those lines running across your palm that look like old burn marks?' HEH)

Usually we take note and heed these things and avoid problems.. but THEN.. there are the CONSTANTS..

These are those things which you KNOW about.. BUT DO ANYWAY..

To wit..
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WHAT YOU KNOW...

When assembling coax cable with PL-259's on both ends - ALWAYS check to make sure the connector and the connector shell is placed on the cable IN THE PROPER ORDER and PROPERLY ORIENTED.

WHAT YOU DO (at least once)

The shell will be left off OR the shell will be placed backwards. HARD AND FAST RULE! You will NEVER notice UNTIL all the connectors are completely soldered in place.
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WHAT YOU KNOW

Soldering pencil/irons/guns tips GET HOT when they are used. Don't pick them up by the hot tips and watch what you are doing!

WHAT YOU DO (at least once)

Without looking, you reach for the soldering pencil/iron/gun and grab (VERY VERY FIRMLY WITH THE KUNG-FU GRIP) the hot part. THEN you drop it on the carpet where it burns the carpet and stinnks up the room
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WHAT YOU KNOW

'MEASURE TWICE, CUT ONCE!'

WHAT YOU DO (at least -more than- once!http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

You measure quickly, cut quickly, feed wires through chassis/walls/trees and THEN find you are 'just a bit short'.
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ANY OTHER'S?
http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[XV2PS]

I want to take this opportunity to say thanks to icom for having an automatic rf power cut off when swr is too high.
How many time did I tx w/o an antenna connected..... You know, these damn antenna switches... You try something on one socket, you disconnect, but later you forget.

Some years ago, I would have fired more than 20 rigs... http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif

[K8ERV]

Measure twice, and cut once? NO- No-No. I measure three times, cut twice, then throw it away---

One of my friends at college, one of the smartest guys I knew, DID grab the wrong end of a soldering iron. Only once, I hope.

TOM K8ERV

[K8ERV]

Oh, you are supposed to put the 259 shells on the cable FIRST? Maybe that is my problem. Thanks for the advise, might save a lotta cable--- http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif

TOM K8ERV

[KC0OFZ]

Tom
Cut twice and then throw away?, nah, I just get the old coax stretcher out and problem solved http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[KM5FL]

Hey!.. I cut it twice and it's still too short???

KM5FL

[KC7UP]

Best trick I ever did was back in 1960 on a trip and was going to use the cigarette lighter from the dash of the car, however when it popped out it didn't look hot. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mad.gif Putting thumb to test proved otherwise. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif Lucky I had callouses. Oh yes tested a hot soldering iron a time or two.
Curt

[ka5s]

Experience is the WORST teacher. It teaches the lesson only after the exam.

Cortland

[K9STH]

Recommended reading is the article "The Contributions of Edsel Murphy on the Understanding of the Behavior of Inantimate Objects" that was published in the Proceedings of the IEE many years ago!

Also, there were some pretty good information in QST during the late 1950s and 1960s about these things.

Things like a dropped tool will fall wherever it can cause the greatest amount of damage. Also known as the law of selective gravitation.

If "N" parts are need to construct a project, "N-1" will be in stock!

And so on.

Glen, K9STH

[ae4tr]

Here is one of the best. #If you drop someting, it will roll to the least accessable part of the room, hiding from the one who dropped it.

The ONE good thing about 'experience lessons' is that THEY tend to be the ones you remember FOREVER and make the biggest impression...

If you ever wondered what the speed of pain is? Grab the soldering iron with your hand while it's nice and hot.

The speed of pain is SLOWER than your ability to process it before damage occurs BUT FASTER than your ability to restrain the torrent of expletives that you speak as you are responding to the speed of pain!

As Dr. Zachary Smith of 'Lost In Space' TV show used to say

"OH THE PAIN!!! THE PAIN!!!"

He MUST have grabbed an iron by the wrong end..

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[k6pme]

When you are raised in rural California you usually learn about electricity at a very early age.....Lesson #1 goes like this: NEVER EVER pee on an electric fence. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif

Monty

(Yes, believe it or not California is more rural than city)

[N0KLT]

I still can't figure out why I can never remember to remove my head completely from under the table or desk before raising my head when I have been under there. I average about 1 out of 3 times it seems not remembering. And that's really sad because I have to go under the kitchen table almost daily to get a diabetic cat out from under there for his insulin shot. One of these centuries, I will learn............but I doubt it.

73

Gary NØKLT

[N0WVA]

Never solder around a good looking piece of equipment. It will sure enough get melted by the tip.

IT must be a fact of HUMAN NATURE..

WHY..

We SEE the tube is on because the RED FILAMENT GLOW is there.. (or white, depending on the tube)

YET WE MUST... reach down our finger and TOUCH it.. 'just to see if it's ON!' http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif We burn our fingers, pull it back and stick it into our mouth to 'suck out the pain' I guess.

Will we learn? NO WAY. Sometime later.. we'll do it again!

Why? I don't know..

It must be the SAME inner programmed drive that forces us to....


when presented with ANY piece of electronics gear.. we MUST (no matter what) flip switches, push the buttons,and touch it - regardless of what is going on..

Maybe that is what makes hams unique..?!

Ahh well, gotta go check some tubes..

[kd5sdi]

some years back in an electronics course we had a "button pusher" in our midst. He could not resist pushing all of the buttons, flipping the switches, and in general messing with everything. We found a switch with a three inch diameter red button on it, a button pushers dream. We attached a 150 volt dc power supply to a 20 volt 33,000 mic. electrolytic cap through that switch, and put a huge sign over the button that said "do not touch". We left the lab for a moment and waited for the bang, which we heard, and came running. It was a laugh riot. Dude never touched another button.

[K8ERV]

OFZ: You may have a coax stretcher, but I invented a Puppy Press. Every time my dog got too big, I pressed her back to "normal" size. Less room in our bed, and less dog food---- http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

TOM K8ERV