No radio time for W2LJ this past weekend. It was time for decorating the interior of the house and also time for the annual Christmas light fight. I was too busy setting up the tree (artificial - real ones play havoc with my sinuses) and just about pulling out my gray hair over Christmas lights. It is so frustrating to have strings of lights where entire sections go dark.
That's not me - but you get the idea!
My son and I looked at the offending sections for a while and discovered that some wires completely pulled out from a few sockets, so rather than dealing with trying to figure that out and waste time making what would probably end up as a futile attempt at repair, I just chucked them and purchased two new strings. It's not worth the frustration.
I don't know what happens to these things. When we took them off the tree last year, they were fine. We carefully wound them onto reels and stowed them in a safe place until it was time to deploy them again this year. I think I must have Christmas Tree light gremlins that come and visit the house during the summer months and destroy what we have - just to play mind games with me. For reasons unknown, these little demons did not bother the outside lights - no, those were just fine! I guess I should be grateful they left those alone.
Tonight we'll actually put the ornaments on. When that's done, that will finish the decorating for 2023, then radio activity can commence again.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
Hi Larry, I recently discovered your blog and have been enjoying reading your posts :-) Re: the perishable Christmas lights, we seem to have those same gremlins! Each year we go through the same ritual of discovering which strings of lights went from 100% functional to completely unusable just by being carefully stored in an indoor closet for 11 months. (They never die while being used & power-cycled throughout December, so it's not a fuse issue.) Suspecting cheap/flimsy wire, we've tried a few different brands, but to no avail. I've never encountered any other (non-battery) electrical product that behaves like this!
ReplyDelete72 de John AC7FX