Of course there is the still unfortunate news that I have not alluded to just yet but has progressively worsened at this time, and then another issue to put pay to me entering the 2m FMAC on the first Tuesday of this month was the battery on my car, it is still working but some mornings the car is not starting well, and the Saturday before the contest it would not start at all without me jump starting it.
The first thing to do really would be to replace the battery with a new one though that might be best left until the current one won't hold a charge, which I believe could be soon as on the Saturday morning I alluded to the voltage in the battery was down to 9V, not enough to run the starter motor and therefore not enough current either, this did reveal the FTM-400's voltage input is pretty wide but that voltage certainly would not have been enough to transmit, the FTM-400 was disconnected from the electrical supply while the car was jump started to protect it, this is generally a precaution I take as it is an expensive radio (and my only Yaesu at this time), it's not mentioned in the user manual.
I don't intend to risk entering the contest with a potentially defective car battery and with the other issue outstanding I could find myself in the situation in that I may not be able to replace the battery for some months, however this may not be the case.
The situation I currently find myself in also decreases the likelihood of me being able to save as much as I would like in order to purchase the FT991A and the FT2D (both of which are expensive radios and I'm after a 991 for the purpose of being able to operate HF other than 10-metres), but I've dealt with far worse before and will do what I can to pull through it.
I hope I can have the summer of portable radio I'd like to have, as I still need to get batteries and a tent, maybe I can have a friend join me camping if they're up for it and don't complain about my hobby (I do have one friend like that and they need to learn to accept that it is my hobby so it probably won't be them).
73 de 2E0EIJ
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