Thursday, Jan. 2, 2013 — I wrapped up my New Year’s Day with a post-SKN QSO using my Bunnell Gold Bug.
I was tuning across the old Novice portion of 40 meters (some habits die hard) and ran across a W5 calling CQ. This portion of the band is often home to slow-to-medium speed CW buffs, and I cruise it frequently. I called the W5, noting his signal was fading. Hopefully the QSB won’t be too severe.
It was worse than I expected, though we did complete the QSO. His report to me was the worst I’ve ever received in recent history — RST 519. I gave him a 569, though his signal was weak but readable for all but the deepest QSB fades.
As is common in the evenings in that part of the band, you often find VE’s and other stations operating phone, and that was the case during our QSO. My FT-2000 did its usual great job of isolating the W5’s signal from the adjacent splatter; however, the W5 was operating a Kenwood TS-50. If he didn’t have the optional 500Hz CW filter, copy would have been very difficult with the adjacent signals and general band noise. The TS-50 I own lacks the filter, so I have avoided using it for CW (though I do have a Datong FL-3 that is one of the top audio filters available).
During my QSO I realized the Gold Bug was sending some very brief dits — which are fine under good conditions when your sigs are 589, but can be a problem when copy is tough. The last thing I wanted to do was to try adjusting the key in the middle of a QSO (I could tweak a Vibroplex easily enough, but I was less confident I could adjust the Gold Bug and make it better.
As I was operating, I realized part of the issue was that the keying lever was slightly binding … if I was good and physical with the lever, it would make strong dits; if I didn’t move the lever forcefully, I was rewarded with weak, very short dits. I did the best I could to make the dits as strong as possible, though they still were not to my pleasing. Once the QSO was done, I readjusted the Gold Bug’s upper pivot and improved the dits for presumably the next QSO.
I then pulled out the 1913 Vibroplex Original with the intent to make a QSO or two. I ran into some issues with continuity of the dash contact; it would intermittently drop out or fail to key property. Not acceptable. What the key needs is a small copper braid to connect the dash contact with the pivot frame, much like the Vibroplex DeLuxe does.
That’s it for this trip … more to come. 73 es HNY.