hollyking | Can you hear me now?

Tonight was the weekly net for the Redmond ARES group. As I've mentioned before I was dreading this more than a bit. I had a knot in my stomach and was really tempted to just turn off my radio and skip another week. I didn't though. When the call came for visitors to check in I keyed the mike and clearly spoke my callsign. When I let go of the button I could hear someone just finishing their callsign. I had transmitted at the same time as someone else and thanks to the "magic" of FM radio they won and their signal made it through. It happens, so I keyed up and tried again. As I let go I heard the tail end of another transmission. I tried a third time and didn't hear anything when I released the transmit button and wasn't recognized by net control. A few more attempts and it was clear that my transmissions were not being received. I don't know what's wrong, but at least I tried. I have a week to figure out the problems and get things working before the next net. In the meantime I'm going to send an email to the emergency coordinator (EC) for the ARES group. I'll apologize for dropping the ball and ask if they'll have me back. That's going to be a fun message to write.

After attempting the net hollyqueen and I watched the last three episodes of Dr. Who. We've now caught up with everything but the last holiday special.