At 05:47 AM 12/1/2009, Bob McGwier wrote:
I wish I had a buck for every time I have done this. I could drink coffee for a year at Starbuck's. Why does the technical mind (more male than female but both nevertheless) tend to run to the worst possibility rather than look for the simplest. I am about the worst offender I know.
Bob
Just yesterday I spent a half hour wondering why my printer didn't print. When you remove the wrong ethernet cable earlier in the day and assumed it was the correct one for another device...well, you know the rest of the story.
73 Greg N3MVF
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I smile (in self recognition). An old mentor, when I was starting in a career of electronic repair, said "its usually something simple"! "Do not automatically look for the worst cause". The first step in troubleshooting is to verify all the inputs are present, then check the outputs, then back up an look and smell. And by all means do not "assume".
My eme station was not receiving last night when I started it up after a month's idleness. So I check the dc voltages (all there), then noticing the coax is connected differently, I check the outside connection (was to a different feedthru connector...hmm). Only took about 20-min to discover (apparently changed my mind on which connector to use and didn't complete the changeover).
Years ago when a satellite-TV dealer, a customer called to say his set quit. I drove 100-miles to work on it to find the ac cord disconnected in back of his large entertainment cabinet. I could only justify taking some gas money from the very apologetic customer (I blew off 5-hours of my time).
73, Ed - KL7UW, WD2XSH/45 ====================================== BP40IQ 500 KHz - 10-GHz www.kl7uw.com 500-KHz/CW, 144-MHz EME, 1296-MHz EME DUBUS Magazine USA Rep dubususa@hotmail.com ======================================