I mentioned my broken frequency counter... Tony Fishpool, G4WIF, of G-QRP sent me a replacement CMOS chip. The counter is now counting beautifully. It was a real chore to get the bad chip off the double-sided board, then I doubled my work by putting Tony's chip in upside down. It doesn't work very well that way. I did another chip extraction. By this time I had all kinds of lifted pads, broken traces, pins on the verge of breaking. I felt sure that all the heating and de-soldering had destroyed the CMOS. But no! It lives!
This was a very satisfying troubleshoot and repair. I feel like Dr. House. The whole thing was made even nicer by the fact that the repair part came from the junkbox of a friend. Thanks Tony!
Looks like the old counter is still well-calibrated. It has my QRSS sig at 10140070. ON5EX's grabber puts me at 10140050. So the counter is 20 Hz high. Not bad for flea market junk.
EI6KC achieves first Satellite Worked All Zones Award (SAT WAZ) in Ireland
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Congratulations to Max, EI6KC on achieving his third CQ Satellite Worked
All Zones (WAZ) award. He already holds two SAT WAZ awards as SA5IKN (#40)
and M...
3 hours ago