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Have you been a good little Ham this year?  Maybe Santa will leave one of these in your stocking!

The 2012 Morse Express Christmas Key

In Celebration of the Season… Morse Express has commissioned its twelfth annual Christmas Key.

Our 2012 Christmas Key is a fully functional miniature telegraph key made by GHD Telegraph Key in Sendai City Japan. It incorporates traditional Japanese craftsmanship with GHD’s impeccable engineering and finish.

In keeping with GHD’s larger keys, the Morse Express 2012 Christmas Key is fully adjustable, with precision pin bearings at the trunnion, miniature binding posts, comfortable knob, and perfect balance. The contacts are hard-silver and the distinctive oval base is finished in satin chrome. The knob is hand-turned mahogany, and there are four small anti-skid rubber feet on the bottom. GHD’s Toshihiko Ujiie uses both modern and traditional techniques to produce a miniature key that will be equally at home in the radio shack, in the field, or decorating a Christmas tree.

According to Marshall Emm (N1FN), “the Christmas keys have always been a labor of love for me, and my first priority has always been usability. GHD has brought considerable expertise to the manufacture of the Christmas keys, and the 2012 key is a little gem.” The 2012 Christmas Key measures 2″ by 1-1/8″ at the base and it weighs two and a half ounces. Each key has a label with “Christmas 2012” and a unique serial number in the limited edition of 150 keys. The 2012 Christmas key will add something special to straight key operations through the Holiday Season and on Straight Key Night.

LT-MX12 Morse Express 2012 Christmas Key available at  http://www.MTechnologies.com/xmas

Ho, Ho, Ho!

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!

Sometimes an episode comes along that defies description. This is one of those times. Richard was exhausted from his job. Russ was exhausted from life in general. Topics were a bit thin. Both hosts found their way into the sauce for the evening. Everything conspired to make Episode #096 one of the worst on record. We’re writing this summary in the hopes that you’ll look at it, ask yourself, “How bad can it be?” and listen anyway. Despite the less than ideal circumstances, the content is still relevant, informative and even fun. Hm. Maybe this isn’t the worst episode after all. You be the judge.

73 de The LHS Guys

For the time being I have put my IBP Beacon Monitor page back online. As I mentioned in a previous post, this is really something that needs to run 24/7 to be of most value. I note that I am not the only beacon monitor who states that monitoring runs only when not otherwise using the radio and antenna. So perhaps I will manage to keep it going for a bit longer than previously.

I updated the list of other beacon monitoring stations at the bottom of the page, deleting those that did not appear to be active. The official NCDXF/IARU International Beacon Project beacon monitors page has a lot of dead links on it.

It’s interesting to take a look and see what propagation is like in other parts of the world. It’s a pity there aren’t more beacon monitors in the USA. And is propagation really that good in VK-land?

I like the additions F4CWH has made to his beacon monitor pages. I wonder if he would share with me how he has done it? I would particularly like to indicate which beacons are off the air. Three of them. including the one on the east coast of the USA (New York) are not operating at the moment.