Early today, I had problem with feedback on my little Sony ICD-P520 voice recorder during an AO-51 pass, which was unusual: I’d never heard it before. I suspected that it might be because I didn’t have a connector tightended or an audio jack stuck in all the way, and wanted to work the evening pass so I could test it. Unfortunately, minutes before the first pass of the evening, I realized that I had left the radio on, and the thing was dead. I tried quickly to shift to my little Yaesu VX-3R, but it doesn’t have the uplink frequencies plugged in, and I botched the recording anyway.

So, I put the Kenwood on the charger, and waited the 98 minutes for the next pass. Unfortunately, the Kenwood charges VERY SLOWLY, like 10 to 12 hours, so when AO-51 came up, I didn’t have much of a charge in it. I was suprised to find that nobody was working it as it came up in the southwest. I was the first person to call out. I got WC7V, Kerry, and then KD7F KB7F (upon further playbacks) called back, but while trying to confirm the contact, my battery cut out again. An annoying feature of the TH-D7A is that it gives no hint: it just reboots.

But, at least the feedback was gone on the recording.

Here’s it is, for the enjoyment of all.

Sorry ’bout that James Gerald. I’ll catch you again some other time.