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American Morse DCP Paddles
24 May 2012 | by Now that things are starting to settle down, tomorrow evening I will probably begin building my American Morse DCP Paddles that were my birthday gift. I don’t think I am going to go real fancy and mirror polish the aluminum pieces; but I probably will go over them very well with either some steel wool or perhaps the Dremel with a polishing wheel.
There’s a set of Palm mini paddles up for bid on eBay I would really like a set of those. Yesterday, the high bid was about $26 – today it’s up to $76 with five more days to go. The auction includes the Code Cube keyer, so the “buy new” price for both is about $195 (this is the gray model). Knowing eBay, I am willing to wager that by the time the auction is over, the selling price is not going to be that much of a bargain.
It has been my experience that folks can get “caught up in the moment” and bid wildly just so as to not “let it get away”. This can be great if you’re the seller – and if you’re one of the bidders, unless you REALLY want the particular item, it can cause you to sigh, shrug your shoulders and walk away.
If I get time during lunch tomorrow, there’s an Eastern Mountain Sports store near where I work. I just might head on over there and start looking at padded cases to store the KX3 in when I place it in my knapsack or rucksack. I want to keep the new radio in as good condition as my K1 was, even after nine years. It literally looked brand spankin’ mint new – like it just came out of the box.
From one of the QRP e-mail reflectors, someone made me aware of this 6 X 9 padded pouch from Maxpedition padded cases. For $33, it looks like a nice solution – but I’d still like to see what the outdoors store has in stock.
The idea, of course, is to keep this all as light and small as possible. Antenna, battery and radio should be able to fit quite nicely into my small CQ knapsack that I purchased at Dayton back in the 90s. I don’t think I am going to flip for a whole new case – like the Lowepro Traveler 140 camera case that has been bandied about by some of the guys. But I have to admit, after watching this YouTube video about the Lowepro Traveler 150 by TJ, W0EA, I could be persuaded if I could find one at a good price.
Maybe I’ll head on over to the local WalMart this weekend and see if I can find one at a real good price like TJ did.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
4 Responses to “American Morse DCP Paddles”
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Those paddles polish up pretty easily. I shined mine up like a mirror. I can’t remember how I did it now, but I do remember that it didn’t take much effort, certainly didn’t use any power tools on it. I used them as my main set of paddles for portable QRP for years. I switched to a touch sensitive set recently, no keyer in it just touch sensitive paddles. All my rigs have keyers built in anyway.
73, de AA1IK
Ernest Gregoire
Thanks, Ernest! I look forward to starting on them tonight. I will keep everyone posted as to progress.
73 de Larry W2LJ
Larry, I have one of these which holds my 817, Elecraft T1 tuner, portable paddle, bnc cables, balun, small log, pens, Li-ion battery pack & manual. Might be a little tight for the KX3, but there are a couple of larger sizes. Think I paid less than $25 for it.
http://www.targus.com/us/productdetail.aspx?sku=TSM097US
I used my cartridge case vibrating polisher to polish the parts. Let it run for 5-6 hours, and they are mirror bright. However, make sure to have the screws in the holes, or they will be nicely clogged with bits of walnut shell.
73 /paul W3FIS