Last night I tried to tune my rig, but the CW key stopped working. I tried another key, it didn't work, so then I resoldered the cable (at the orginal wire to plug contact points) thinking a wire had broken near the plug, I shortned the wire and then checked with my multi-tester to make sure it was conducting, but it still didn't work. Today I went to Radio Shack and bought a new 1/4" mono cable plug with two tabs to solder the wires to the plug. When I compared the old and the new, I realized the person who had soldered the original plug used a stereo plug with three contact tabs. Apparently, one wire on the original plug had been soldered to the wrong tab and the correct tab was bent over to short it out against the incorrectly soldered tab, which was a quick, but poor fix, and by me moving the key around I broke the connection. I have never paid attention to plugs before, and I really didn't know how they worked, other than they made an elelctrical connection. Now I know, since I had to troubleshoot the problem. A tiny bit more added to my understanding of the hobby. The new mono plug works just fine and it turned out to be a $4.00 fix. I am very glad because I can't afford a big repair bill right now and my repair skills are extremely limited.
I listened for the Special Event Station commemerating the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Bull Run, but I didn't hear it, but my brother came by and I couldn't work at it too long. Hope to hear them tomorrow. My brother and I reenacted the battle on my dining room table. It's an old game I've had for years called "Across 5 Aprils" and the battle of Bull Run is one of the five battles you can play in the game. The other battles the game has is Pea Ridge, Shiloh, Gettysburg, and Bentonville. It is a great way to learn about the battles! I want to play out each of those battles on the 150th anniversary date of each battle.
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