Just goes to show how corrosion stops a radio in its tracks!!!
Had two kindly ham guys (Owen and Ed) come to try to help me with radio problems this morning in Pt Townsend, before my longish passage down to SF.
Came with meters and lots of friendly, helpful advice - got me 'squirrelling' behind the inaccessible parts of my boat woodwork (where I'd hidden the ATU). I needed to dismantle a few bits of woodwork, but it turned out to be well worth the time & effort spent since the result, according to the Net Controller (Aaron Benson) of the Northern Boaters Net (Ludlow, WA, area), was a 1000% improvement in his reception of my transmission - wow!! I came 'booming' out when I tested the system - so, hopefully, all is now well on board 'Nereida' and Winlink (and SSB radio in general) should work fine. What a relief!! (We'll see how easily I connect in when I go to send this...!)
I leave for Neah Bay and points south, towards San Francisco, tomorrow (Sunday 15th Oct) - weather looks fairly settled but calm, so may have quite a bit of motoring - but hopefully the sails will get used also!! Main thing is that there is no obvious bad weather forecast just now.
I just hope that this passage with be free of the many problems each passage has had this year so far...!!!
Port Angeles, WA