Imabug's journey into electronics and amateur radio as AB4UG and VA6BUG
It’s been a while since I’ve had the time to participate in SKYWARN™ Recognition Day. This year I’ll be on the air once again helping out with activating the National Weather Service Charleston office (WX4CHS) Saturday morning (December 6).
This year marks the 25th year of SKYWARN™ Recognition Day. Should be a fun time.
Received a nice package of Etherkit goodies from Jason/NT7S today. More fun things to build and play with.
One of the boards he sent was his EtherKeyer Mini along with a KM4CFT 3D printed paddle that he reviewed.
I’ll need to see if I’ve got a spare TRS cord lying around to use with the paddle.
The other board he sent along was a code practice oscillator board (the Etherkit CPO Among Us edition).
These should make for a fun weekend project.
Jason’s got some fun looking things in the works these days. Go see what he’s been up to on his Applied Etherics Substack.
Just saw that the SC QSO Party 2024 results are available.
According to the results, W4BXC had 115 QSOs, 58 multipliers, 29 counties, scoring 21498 points (including 850 bonus points). Looks like 4 QSOs got busted or something.
That got us to 13th place in the Phone only category.
This year’s SCQP had a total of 406 logs submitted and 27468 QSOs this year.
Next edition of the SC QSO party is February 22, 2025. Looking forward to it.
The Begali Camelback is the newest addition to my straight key collection. I had been wanting to get a Begali straight key for a while and finally got one at Hamcation last year.
If any company can lay claim to being the Cadillac of CW key makers, I’d say it would be Begali. The Camelback isn’t their most expensive key, but it’s still beautifully made and crafted. It’s a nicely designed key with a simple, elegant aesthetic. It is without question my favourite straight key in my collection to use.
The Camelback weighs in at a hefty 1.8 kg (4 lbs), by far the heaviest of anything in my collection. The weight means it’s not moving anywhere on my desk while I’m using it which is good because you definitely don’t want this thing sliding off your desk.
Two knobs at the rear of the key make it easy to adjust the contact spacing and spring tension to fit your preference.
Like most straight keys, it’s pretty simple and there’s not much to it. The wiring connections are made by soldering wires to terminals in a recessed channel at the bottom of the base. The cable is routed through the channel to the back and makes things nice and tidy.
It makes a satisfying thunk-y sound while I’m tapping out Morse code, as opposed to the more clacky sound that the J-38 makes. This is just a really comfortable key to use.
I don’t remember how I ended up with this Vibroplex Vibrokeyer Standard, but it’s been part of the collection for a few years.
The Vibrokeyer is a nice paddle and doesn’t take a lot of effort to use. It’s built on a solid weighty metal base and has a pretty nice, smooth action. The feet on the bottom have become hard and slick from age so it tends to slide around on the table a bit. I have to hold it still with my other hand when I’m using it. The feet are screwed in to the base so they should be easy enough to replace with fresher, softer feet that will grip the table better.
The key has seen a few years, and based on a compilation of Vibroplex serial numbers by WW7P, the serial number stamped on the plate (272333) dates this particular key possibly around 1973. It’s still in pretty good condition though.
Based on pictures of current Vibrokeyers, it looks like this one might be missing an adjustment knob that goes in the hole at the top.
This is a single lever paddle and needs to be connected to an electronic keyer that generates the dits and dahs. Connected properly, pushing the lever to one side makes the keyer generate dits, and pushing to the other side makes the keyer generate the dahs.
Connections to the keyer are made using the three terminals at the back. The center terminal is the ground/common connector, and the left and right terminals are for the dit/dah sides.
I suppose it could be used as a side-swiper style key or by pressing the lever just to one side like a sideways straight key if a keyer wasn’t available.