I have been seeing the eBay commercial on TV where the people are ice fishing, and one guy pulls in a guitar through a guitar-shaped hole in the ice. I can't think of a more appropriate metaphor for eBay — it truly is like fishing, you never know exactly what you'll bring home.
Note the word “exactly.” I know what I'm looking for, but that doesn't mean I'm going to buy it, of course. One such unintended purchase arrived via DHL today on my front porch.
As I always say (ambiguiously, of course), “You can't keep too many keys in a ham shack.” That's a statement my wife and I both can agree on, though our intentions aren't quite the same, lol!
The newcomer to the shack is a 1945 Vibroplex Original that's as fine an original key as I've seen. It's amazing just how gorgeous these keys can be when they've been stored in the Vibroplex carrying case. The case that came with this key is missing the leather handle, which is fairly common on older carrying cases. The leather tends to dry rot, and I have several cases that have handles that I won't use for that reason.
The only flaw on this key is the circuit closer switch. This key has a red one, and that's incorrect for a non-DeLuxe key. The seller believed this key was a World War II DeLuxe, basing that on the red circuit closer knob. The base of the key is the standard 1940s finish, wrinkle black.
I would say this key was probably owned by a ham. There are initials artfully carved into the side of the case, but no call sign. The key has no real wear — the base and the chrome parts look like they were assembled yesterday.
I've tried the key out and its a fast one, even with the third weight. The contacts are clean and it was easy to dial in.
I didn't really get to play with the key on the air yet. I used my new Mac Key to check-in on the KSN this evening. The conditions were absolutely terrible, the NCS was buried in the noise during the preamble, and he only came above the noise after he started taking check-ins.
Only three stations checked in to the net. I don't think any of us could hear each other or the NCS well, the second check-in couldn't hear the NCS calling him to clear him from the net. The NCS was in and out of the noise, and I was only able to keep track of him mostly because I've heard him call the net before. After I cleared he ended the net.
The band was running long. As I was at the rig waiting for the net, I heard another net under way just below the KSN frequency. That NCS, W7GHT, was solid copy, though not all of his QNI were copyable. They were 7-land'ers, and I later learned the net is the Idaho-Montana Net (IMN) that runs every night at 0300Z.
That's all for tonight … the band is still bad.