I'm a sucker for an ugly face. Maybe its sympathy, but there's some CW keys I just can't pass up.
That Bencher BY-1 I reassembled and adjusted is a good example. Another “example” arrived today by parcel post — a 1976 Vibroplex Lightning Bug DeLuxe.
This key was in bad shape. The photos showed what amounted to little more than a parts key. It was cheap enough, and no one else wanted it. I had the only bid on it, no need to snipe this ugly duckling.
At worst, I had a collection of sundry parts; at best I had a jewel in the rough. Gotta love a challenge.
I opened the box and went to work this afternoon, reassembling it and checking for missing parts. I was amazed to find it essentially complete! The red thumb piece was broken, and I had an extra in my parts box. I haven't actually cleaned it up, but it needs it. The contacts looked excellent, and after adjusting it, the key played like a dream. No kidding, this key was sooo smooth it played better than many other bugs I have. I used this new Lightning Bug DeLuxe to check in to the KSN and had no problems. For whatever reason, its a good deal quieter than the Vibroplex Original I had been using. The damper on the Lightning Bug doesn't make a lot of noise, and the absence of clacking parts was noted during my QNI.
The key needs a good cleaning. The base has a little corrosion on it, so the chrome isn't perfect. But it looks pretty good for a former derelict.
This is the only mid-1970s Vibroplex bug I own, and I learned something new about the company with this bug. This key, which was built before Vibroplex was sold and moved to Maine in 1979, has the stick-on ID tag. For years I had associated the stick-on ID tags with the company's Maine years. The stick-on ID tags don't stick very well. It's not uncommon to find keys that have the brass tag either lifting off the base, loose or missing entirely. When Vibroplex was sold and moved to Alabama, the company reverted to the earlier practice of using rivets to hold the tags down.
The brass tag on this Lightning Bug seems to be very well attached to the base. After the move to Maine, Vibroplex discontinued the Lightning Bug model, which never made sense to me because the Lightning Bug was cheaper to build than the Original since it didn't use cast parts. Perhaps it was a nod to the history behind the Original, though they could have dropped it and kept the Lightning Bug and reduced their manufacturing costs and charged the Original's price.
I'll have to disassemble this key and clean it up and see how it looks. I suspect that if I cleaned it up I wouldn't have much trouble getting my money back, and then some. Maybe some bucks for my FT-2000 radio fund?? Hmmmm….