Saturday, Jan. 2, 2016, 10:30 p.m. — Straight Key Night is over for 2015, and I didn’t get nearly enough time at the rig, mostly because life got in the way.
Thursday night I got in the shack to listen around and also make sure I had some keys prepped and adjusted. I have the 100th Anniversary key that’s been at my operating position for months, and it was ready to roll. But I had other keys I needed to check out, which was something good to work on while listening to SKN QSOs on 80.
The 1969 Vibroplex Presentation that I purchased recently needed some clean-up of the contacts; once that was done it too was ready to roll. It didn’t need much beyond the cleaning and adjustment.
Now the 1938B McElroy Mac Key that’s been floating around my desk needed a little work to address some scratchy/intermittent dots; I ended up taking the contact screws out and the contacts on the lever and cleaned them up until they were bright and shiny. With that done, the key played very, very well — probably better than it the years I’ve owned it.
I also did some general clean-up around the operating position, and I found in my stack-o-stuff a 1970 Vibroplex Original DeLuxe that was still in its shipping box. The box had been mashed and was in bad shape, but the key was well-protected and suffered no damage. I probably shouldn’t be so surprised that once adjusted, the key also played very well. I threw the box away and have the key at the operating position. Clearly I need to make some room on my shelves for key storage.
I also ran across a 1959 Vibroplex Original DeLuxe with the original cord that I had pushed under the lowest shelf at the operating position. The key is very nice, and I have never operated it or adjusted it. The contacts needed minor cleaning, but it adjusted well.
I also decided to work on the last Lionel J-36 I purchased; the keying lever yoke isn’t real tight, and the dots and dashes are intermittently scratchy. I worked on the key, but I had a desk full of keys and decided to focus more on operating.
One of the best trends in Straight Key Nights has been how SKN participants are also taking night to fire up their classic or antique ham gear. I love listening for distinctive CW notes on Straight Key Night, and wasn’t disappointed Thursday night and Friday.
I ran across some really nice stations, from classic Kenwoods (TS-430, TS-520), a few nice sounding Ten Tecs (Omin V, Omni VI), a couple homebrew transmitters and to my favorite was a Viking Ranger transmitter.
Post-SKN, I also heard W1WV running a Viking Ranger, and he was working station after station on 40 meters, though I think he mentioned during one QSO he was using a keyer rather than a straight key.
There was lots of activity today on 40, including quite a bit of RTTY. I didn’t check the contest calendar, but I suspect there was some sort of digital sprint or operating event underway.
Tonight I checked in to the Georgia Training Net on 3548 kHz. The band was active, and there were four check-ins. The Kentucky CW Net was going on at the same time on 3535, but that net ran short — by the time I cleared the GTN, the KYN was already done. Maybe next time.
73 es CUL de KY4z SK … dit … dit …