The IC-718 Saga Continues!
It seems like I can't catch a break with my Icom IC-718! Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the rig, it's robust, simple, easy to use, and I always get great signal reports when using it with my Wolf River Coil antenna system.
Today I tried to activate A.W. Marion State Park, US-1931, in Circleville, OH. I stopped at A.W. Marion while on my way to the John Glenn International Airport (KCMH) in Columbus, OH to bring a friend back to Athens after a trip back home to Utah. His flight ended up getting delayed early in the morning so it gave me a little bit more time to stop and activate a park that's farther from home than normal.
I arrived around 1845 UTC and found an abundance of picnic tables! My favorite place to activate from is a picnic table that looks over a lake at a park, there's just nothing else like it and it has always screamed "POTA" to me. I unloaded my gear and began setting up at a table that was about halfway from the parking lot to the lake from where I was parked. I started to setup my gear and I put on my Sporty Forty coil so I could operate on the 40 meter band for the activation.
After everything was setup and I found a clear frequency on 40 I spotted myself and started calling CQ. Nothing, just nothing at all. Tried to hunt Park-to-Park QSOs, but there were any active on 40 at the time. At this rate I removed the Sporty Forty and tried the 20 meter band. Found an empty frequency, re-spotted and started calling again. Much like before, nothing, nothing at all. At this point I started suspect something was wrong, tried unplugging my coax from the radio and plugging it back in, still nothing. So I tried hunting Park-to-Park QSOs on 20, no reply from them. So I unplugged the antenna and turned on my NanoVNA to see if the coax and antenna were fine, I was reading 1.2:1 SWR. I had actually started to think it was my coax at this point because I had tripped on it while setting up my radio and I was worried that my trip might've caused damaged with a connector, but everything was reading fine.
So I pressed on and tried to find a new station to listen to, would've been a Park-to-Park, if they could've heard me, but still nothing. At this point, I had been at the park for 45 minutes with no contacts, I just decided to pack up since it was going to take 45 minutes to get from the park to KCMH to get my friend who was flying in. However, since my trusty ratcheting screwdriver broke when I was disassembling my IC-718 a week ago, I did a search for hardware stores near Circleville and I found a Harbor Freight in the heart of town about 15 minutes away. I stopped in and grabbed a 26 pcs screwdriver set for $12 so I could disassemble the rig when I returned home to Athens. I also made a quick stop at the Taco Bell that was across the parking lot to grab a drink and a quick snack since it was approaching 4pm EDT and I was getting a little hungry. Then I headed to Columbus.
After returning back to Athens and dropping off my friend, I went home to take a part my rig. I reseated every ribbon cable that went from the front panel of the radio to the main body, as well as every ribbon cable that connected from the front panel to another part of the front panel. I only found one connection that was a tad loose out of all of them.
After assembling everything again, I started to wonder if I had accidentally pressed a button on the front panel that would've caused something to happen that would've affected my operating. I had already tried turning compression on and off while trying to get Park-to-Park contacts, but that didn't seem to make an effect. I then realized that since my screen is broken and I have to type in frequencies via the keypad I might've hit a number that changed a setting and was throwing off my transmit. I remembered that I had tried to type in a frequency, but I didn't hit the "F-INP ENT" key so nothing I typed in went through. I then realized that a station I was trying to contact was on a frequency that ended in the number 7 and it just so happens that the 7 key on the IC-718 is the key to enable split operation, where you listen and transmit on different frequencies.
Well, I think I found the culprit! It was me all along and my broken screen. I do apologize to everyone that I may have been interfering with while I was accidentally running split. Not my proudest moment, but you live and learn!
Here are some more pictures from the day.
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