Posts Tagged ‘keys’
Today was a lot of fun
January 1st, 2013 | 
Author: Well, actually last night AND today were a lot of fun! And there’s more to go tonight as the 40 Meter QRP Fox hunts start up again tonight.
I ended up working only three stations last night. First, I had a quick 2X QRP QSO with Dave NE5DL down in Texas on 20 Meters to start SKN off. That was followed by two rag chews. The first was on 40 Meters with N4LZY, Jerry in Tennessee and was followed by a chew with K3OWZ, John in PA. John was using a Heathkit Apache and a National NC303 receiver. Good stuff!
I was on the air off and on for a good portion of today. I worked Dan SM5IMO in Sweden, and had a nice chat with John VE1BA in Nova Scotia. John was running three Watts and had a killer signal into NJ. That was followed up by a nice chat with another John – K4BAI in Georgia. John and I meet up in the QRP sprints and the Fox hunts. John is a “Ham’s Ham” and a gentleman to boot. It’s always extremely nice hooking up with K4BAI.
I worked Dave K3Y/2 on 40 Meters. LOUD signal into New Jersey from New York state.
The I had an experience that was unique. I was working Stan AEØSL on 20 Meters when the band kicked out on us and we both faded away into the QSB. From there, I jumped on up to 17 Meters and worked VP2MRV in Montserrat. After finishing up with Nao, I began to tune around 17 Meters and whom should my wandering ears hear calling CQ? None other than Stan AEØSL, who I had just worked only minutes before on 20 Meters. He was much, much louder on 17 Meters and we were able to finish up our busted QSO. Now how many times has that happened to you? Dare I say – not many?
I then finished up my afternoon by busting a small pileup to work K1GI/VP9 in Bermuda. A pileup for Bermuda you ask? Well, yes. There were hardly ANY signals on 17 Meters, so in this instance, even Bermuda was like chum to a shark.
Last night and today, the majority of my Morse was sent with my Vibroplex Original that I restored a few years back. I was surprised how quickly I was able to send decent presentable code. It’s like the old adage about riding a bicycle – that once you learn, you never forget. I didn’t sound atrocious to the point that I was embarrassed to be using it; because believe me, if I was that bad I would not have subjected anyone’s ears to a bad cacophony of dits and dahs. Also, the Reverse Beacon Network was picking up my CQs, so the skimmers were able to decode my sending. And if the computers were able to figure it out, then a real live Ham should have had even less trouble.
It’s been a long time since I’ve had the opportunity to spend so much of a day in the shack, behind the radio. I thoroughly enjoyed it and could get quite used to it, given the chance.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
Morse Express 2012 Christmas Key
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!
Slow on the uptake
That’s me …. W2LJ …. incredibly slow on the uptake at times.
For FOBB and again yesterday for the Skeeter Hunt, I ended up using my Whiterook single lever paddle instead of my American Morse Dirt Cheap Paddle. Not because I don’t like the DCP, in fact I love its action and feel. The problem was that every time I would go to pick the paddle up with my big, hammy hands, I would inadvertently squeeze it and start sending unwanted dits or dahs.
This paddle is too good to not use – so tonight I had a “V8 moment” where I hit my forehead as the obvious solution occurred to me. And actually, I ended up killing two birds with one stone.
I carry my ear buds in an old Velamints tin. It occurred to me that the tin could do double duty – carry my ear buds AND serve as a base for my paddles.
I punched a hole through the top of the tin and secured the paddle to the top lid with a #4 screw, lockwasher and nut.
Now the tin does double duty, perfectly! And when I put my big mitts on the tin, I am no longer accidentally squeezing the paddle levers and generating unwanted Morse. Not a good thing in the middle of a sprint (or anytime for that matter!).
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
Done!
The paddles are done. The assembly was in the class of “Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy” territory. And assembly time was all of about a 1/2 hour or so.
The instructions provided by Doug Hauff were superb and easy to follow. The hardest part, installing the compression spring was no big deal at all. Slipped one end of the spring over one of the spring retainer screws and used a tweezer to finagle the other end over the other screw. No launching into orbit or getting lost. Viola!
What I like most about these are:
1) Materials – nice grade of aluminum.
2) Weight – minscule.
3) Size – Super small; but yet not to the point where these are difficult to use. And I can be ham fisted, at times.
4) Ease of adjustment – Here’s the best part. I like my paddles to have MINIMUM arm movement. There should be no “clacking” and the closer I can get the feel to compare to a touch keyer the better. I succeeded here with the DCP. The adjustment screws have a fine enough thread pitch where this was easy to attain.
The only thing that I have to say that is negative, is that when you have the paddles attached to your radio (and it is on), you have to be careful about how you pick these up if you want to move them. Your first inclination will be to reach down (or over) and just grab the key with your hand. If you do it that way, you will most likely start inadvertently sending dits and dahs. Like I did – several times. Oops!
That minor inconvenience being noted, I would give these paddles a 5 out of 5 star rating. For their intended use, these paddles will more than fit the bill. Now all I have to do is figure out some kind of leg mounting scheme.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
Commencement
Not graduation – began working on my American Morse DCP paddles tonight, just as I thought I would.
I spent some time polishing up the aluminum. First, I gave the metal pieces a light scrubbing with one of those copper Chore Boy scrubby pads. Then I used some Noxon metal polish (that I forgot I had!) that I found on a shelf. Lastly, a going over with a polishing wheel on my Dremel.
Not a mirror finish, but a lot shinier than they were originally. All I did was remove the top layer of oxidation. I am sure that with time, the metal will get dull again, but for now, it looks pretty darn nice!
Tomorrow night I will assemble everything – shouldn’t take long at all.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
American Morse DCP Paddles
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!
Wow!
I saw this on eBay today:
Someone in Spain is auctioning off NorCal Doublets. This particular one has 12 bids on it with about 2 1/2 days to go. High bid is $31.00 US.
Holy Shamoley! I have to start getting busy building NorCal Doublets and posting them to eBay !! I have built several of these from ribbon cable as well as light gauge speaker wire. They do work decently well, and they are cheap to make. For what I paid in materials, $31.00 would be a serious return on investment.
The handing out of Skeeter numbers is going well. If you hit the extreme right tab above, entitled “NJQRP Skeeter Hunt“, you’ll get the rules and you’ll be able to see the roster as it currently stands. I am going to update it as often as I can. As of this very second, 39 Skeeter numbers have been handed out.
Ward Silver of the ARRL has been notified, so The Hunt will appear in the August “Contest Corral”. I will send an e-mail to CQ this weekend, also.
Ahhh! My birthday present arrived in the mail today – the DCP paddles from American Morse. Tiny little package for a tiny little key. I hope to start the build this weekend and will post some photos.
The kids (including yours truly) want to see “The Avengers Assemble” this weekend. Hope I can get tickets – all local shows around here for tonight are already sold out.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
