The same week the OVH held its VE session, our Christmas Parade Chairman, George, K4GVT, was at a Cisco internal conference in Knoxville, TN. George had three papers to present and he set up some ham gear to demo.
While there, George and his team also held a Cisco internal only VE Session. George set up his demo station to attract candidates for ham testing.
Additionally, George writes:
“For my ham buddies: When I first set this up on the IC-7610, all bands were dead. I pulled the PL-259 out with only the center conductor connected, and the bands were alive.
So, I had guys on the ground take an ohm meter and monitor the resistance while I went up onto the roof. I checked the feed line, all good. Checked the G5RV, and there was no conduction to the other end.
I removed the lightening suppressor, still open. I found that the twin leads on both sides to be open. Inspecting the actual wire, I found both leads burnt open. Suspected a lightning hit.
When I mentioned this to the building engineer, he told me that a few weeks before, all of the air handlers on the roof had shutdown during a big storm. Looking further, I found our lightening suppressor was distorted.
Glad we didn’t have more damage.”
The following days, George & his team gave a crash course on the Technician level ham test. They held their pretest class in the morning and tested in the afternoon.
They had 7 participants, 6 passed, one failed. But, looking on the positive, 6 new hams.
One of his candidates, a PHD Electrical Engineer, was teased by fellow engineers that he couldn’t pass the tech test.
Challenge accepted and of course, he passed. What a great way to get people to commit.
Not too bad. We’re looking forward to next year.