Jan. 1, 2014, 12:23 a.m. — HNY to all on Straight Key Night. I’ve been prowling 80 meters 
off and on this evening and working on my copying and sending. Its hard to find a place to call CQ because stations are shoulder-to-shoulder all across the band, and there are two and three stations waiting to call the ones who are in QSO.
I’ve been using my Bunnell Gold Bug tonight, though I found a problem with the top pivot adjustment screw and locking nut. The lock nut was jammed tight all the way against the head of the pivot screw. It wasn’t a huge problem at first … if I tightened the pivot screw down tight, it put too much tension on the pivot and dampened (if only slightly) the lever action making dits. It just didn’t send good code that way. When I backed off and left the adjustment a little loose, a few minutes of sending would loosen the screw 1/4 turn, adding increasing amounts of vertical wobble in the keying lever.
As in face-to-face conversations, I can get a little long-winded in a good CW rag chew, and my fear was the increasing lever wobble was going to interfere with the key action. Right before I left the shack, I decided to unjam the lock nut on the top pivot screw. It required careful use of some vice grip pliers and gentle pressure from a slotted screwdriver. The goal was to unjam the two without damaging either. It took a little pressure but the two were separated successfully. The lever adjustment is set and locked in place … finally! Now I can operate without worry of it.
Time to get ready for bed, I’ll be back on the air for more SKN in the morning.
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