Sometimes you do dumb things...

Other times you do really stupid things.

Last night I did a really stupid thing.

I was cleaning up the work/test bench and placed the FLEX-1500 and the Astron RS-4A power supply on top of a Shuttle xPC computer getting ready for today's testing. This is a computer I had working with the FLEX-1500 earlier in the day, but the SDR and the p/s were on the bench, not on top of the computer.

So, just before going to bed I fired up the FLEX-1500 so that I could leave it burning in over night in receive mode while I slept. Within 1 second of firing up PowerSDR I received a dreaded Blue Screen of Death (BSoD). Oh no. It can't be. The FLEX-1500 can not be responsible for generating BSoDs. This would be worse than HORRIBLE! Reboot. BSoD. Reboot again. BSoD. I start to panic until I realized something. I had done something REALLY stupid. I mean REALLY STUPID.

I had placed the Astron RS-4A power supply on top of the computer. It is not a switcher, but a linear power supply. They have transformers. Transformers put off strong magnetic fields. RAM chips in strong magnetic fields go bonkers. Scrambled RAM = BSoD. DUH!

I relocated the RS-4A to a place far, far away from the PC and all is well. I did do an extensive checkdisk to make sure the hard drive was not affected too and it wasn't. All is well.

WARNING: When you are tired, stop operating heavy machinery and do not rearrange the shack.