Hi, folks.

Well, I know everyone is waiting with bated breath and eager anticipation 
regarding the situation with my Astron RS35 power supply, and the need to 
re-establish the ground connection to the unit that was loosened  by me last 
week.

First the good news:

I opened up the supply, and survived an extensive and very interesting 
exploration of the unit's inner components.  No shocks;  no tingles;  and no 
unpleasantries.

Now, the not-so-good news:

In trying to re-tighten the ground connection on the bottom left-hand part 
of the supply last week-end, I did manage to pop the wire out of the 
terminal that is fastened onto the internal philips screw part of the ground 
lug.  The wire is just hanging there, waiting to be re-connected.

I asked the XYL to do a visual inspection of the situation, and she 
indicated that, although the wire is black in color, it clearly looks like 
it should go right back on the empty ground lug terminal.  It is the only 
loose wire we see anywhere.

I am a bit confused as to why a ground wire would be black in color, but 
that seems to be what the manufacturer decided to do.  I also still can't 
believe that the manufacturer made the ground connection the way they did.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how best to put the ground connection 
back together?  My current thinking is to have a sighted ham friend come 
over here and re-solder the connection for me.  It's quite hard to get to, 
since it is buried underneath a whole bunch of other wires and components, 
and I simply don't want to create more problems than I already have.

In the meantime, I will still be able to remain on the air.  I have a Samlex 
switching supply that I use for HF work when camping in the RV during the 
summer time, and I have put it into service until the Astron repairs are 
made.

Thanks again for everyone's patience through all of this, and for putting up 
with my inordinate amount of caution about sticking my hands in there to 
diagnose the problem.

73 from Tom Behler:  KB8TYJ