OK, after writing about my nice EF Johnson chrome plated rectangular-base key, I have a couple of additional entries to add to that.
J-38 STRAIGHT KEY. There were a zillion of these keys produced by a host of manufacturers from World War II all the way through the Korean War and probably beyond. The keys were used for primarily in training military radio operators. Millions of these keys found their way to the surplus market, and they're so plentiful you can pick them up for a song, even on eBay. And while most newcomers to the hobby may not believe it, even a very worn J-38 is a good key with lots of service left. I would recommend most used J-38s to one of the cheaper plastic practice keys any day!
I ended up with the winning bid on a J-38 rather by accident. A seller had listed the key rather cryptically (something along the lines of “Morris code c.w. key”) and did not have a photo of the key that shows up in the listings. The key was simply an old J-38, nothing really special about it.
This J-38 is a bit unusual because it has no brass parts; most J-38s had brass hardware and some had brass frames. Mine is all white metal, which isn't as common, but isn't exactly rare. If it was collectible, then it might be rare, but as such, its just a nice old J-38. I disassembled the key and cleaned it up. It looks quite nice.
JJ-38 STRAIGHT KEY. Always remember to “look before you leap,” or on eBay to “look before you click.” It wasn't until after I had clicked the Buy It Now button that I realized the fuzzy photo was of a imitation of a J-38 key called the JJ-38. The price was a bargain for a J-38 — had it been the real deal. As it is, I still got a fair deal for a new “Japanesee ball bearing key” on a replica J-38-style base.
QST J-38 PADDLES. I've not bid on this eBay auction, but it was interesting enough to watch. A fellow is selling his grandfather's J-38 “paddles” that he made many years ago from two J-38s back-to-back. The guy put the keys together and mounted them on one of the J-38 bases. He did a very nice job of making them look complete too. The bidding now, with less than an hour to go, is just over $50. From what I've read, one of the ham magazines (I think I read it was QST) ran an article for making an iambic paddle from two J-38s.
I've seen several of these pass through eBay. A local ham, Charlie, W4OLG, bought a fine example at the Cave City Hamfest a year or two back. I picked up a similar iambic homebrew key built years ago by a ham from two of the Japanese ball-bearing keys mounted the same way. It takes a little tinkering, but its amazing how nice a feel such a key can have — but talk about ugly! It was a very cheap and interesting key.
I wound up with the first “real” J-38 because I was trying to find some spare parts for an existing key I have. I bought a rather butchered Vibroplex bug that had been converted into a single lever keyer. The base, on the opposite end, has a straight key mounted on it. The straight key was missing a terminal post, and the keying lever was corroded badly, so I was looking for replacement parts. I wound up bidding on two keys (low bids for certain) and won both, never figuring my bids would win. With the J-38 cleaned up it might head back for eBay, I'm fairly sure I could get more than my purchase price. Maybe.
GONE PHISHING. I had an e-mail from eBay a couple of days ago that surprised me. It was a notice that I received an “Unpaid Item Strike” from an eBay seller.
Huh? What? Unpaid? When?
The official-looking e-mail listed the eBay seller and the listing number, but not the name of the item. I went to eBay and did a search for the item number to see what it was I had not paid for. My search came up empty, nothing found under that item number.
That's not necessarily meaningful because eBay doesn't keep listings forever. The unpaid item strike could have come from an item from a month (or months) back. I keep all my eBay e-mails, so I did a search for the item number among all my eBay e-mails.
No matches. Hmmm…. I keep the e-mails that even comfirm when I bid … why no match?
Back in December I had a computer problem and lost some files. Perhaps that's the problem. I went back to the e-mail and re-read it.
At the bottom of the e-mail were a couple of links, one that went to information about unpaid item strikes, and another to go contest the item strike. I put my cursor over the later link, and noticed the web address at the bottom status bar (my e-mail program — Eudora — has a status bar that will show you the address of any link you place the mouse on) was NOT eBay!
BOTH links took you to some domain hosted by a company in Romania. I clicked the link, and a perfect replica of the eBay log-in page came up on my screen. The only giveaway was the address at the top of the browser window — if you didn't notice that you wouldn't notice you weren't at the REAL eBay site.
I have gotten similar messages before but this one was very good — particularly since I've been active on eBay again. Had I actually logged in on this faux eBay site, the phishers would have gotten my account information and hijacked it. I wonder how many people have this happen to them and don't realize it? I've heard people give eBay hell because of problems from a successful phish, never realizing that they were victim of such a scam, and that they were the ones who gave out their account info, not eBay.
That's it for this installment … more later. 73 de KY4Z … sk …. dit dit …..