I knew one twat that binned an entire box of radiosondes for a similar reason.
Despite having been doubled up for twice the amount of shifts standard to a noob, and despite supposedly following an instruction manual that was pretty-much idiot proof, on his first solo night shift he found that he couldn't get a GPS signal on ANY of the radiosondes he tried.
Because he missed out one of the following steps EVERY single time:
After calibration, disconnect the radiosonde from the ground check chamber.
Attach the battery unit to the radiosonde.
Take the radiosonde outside place it in the holder attached to the PortaKabin railings and leave it for five minutes to acquire a signal.

Yeah. EVERY fucking time he went out with no battery pack connected.

But obviously the manual was to blame because it wasn't clear enough.
( stuj (^(^;;^)^) GO TEAM SPIDERS!(^(^;;^)^), Tue 3 Jun 2014, 22:41, 2 replies)

Antarctic survey, perchance?
Or are you the resident Falklands b3tan? I recall PMing one of the b3ta community who was out counting penguins or what not....EDIt Ah yes, sorry it is you. Profile QOTW answers gave away the game.
( Rotating Wobbly Hat That's not a banana. THIS is a banana., Tue 3 Jun 2014, 22:48, closed)

Yeah, I was the penguin fucker.
:D
( stuj (^(^;;^)^) GO TEAM SPIDERS!(^(^;;^)^), Tue 3 Jun 2014, 23:48, closed)

The manual was to blame
You do what's in the manual. If you go outside what's in the manual and it fucks up - your fault. If you do what the manual says and it fucks up - the manual writer's fault. See the reports of air disasters where the manual was either wrong and the instructions caused the crash or the the operator went outside the manual instructions and caused the crash.
(Captain Placid 24/7 ball gags, brownie mix and clown porn, Wed 4 Jun 2014, 11:08, closed)

There was no crash.
Because there was no launch.
The manual stated pretty fucking clearly ATTACH THE BATTERY TO THE RADIOSONDE. Then take it outside to pick up a signal.
No battery attached means NO POWER which means that the radiosonde is NEVER going to pick up a signal.
I put in about the manual being to blame because that was the spastic's excuse. Which our fuckwitted boss concurred with, with the words "Well it's not really clear to me". Despite it being a fucking STEP BY STEP GUIDE WITH PHOTOS.
Wait a minute. It's YOU isn't it. Hello Simon. You useless cat butchering spastic.
( stuj (^(^;;^)^) GO TEAM SPIDERS!(^(^;;^)^), Wed 4 Jun 2014, 16:34, closed)