Saturday, Jan. 9, 2016, 10 p.m. — God bless AD4DX, the NCS of the Georgia Training Net (GTN)! The 80 meter band was sheer bedlam this evening due to the North American QSO Party (NAQP), and he found a spot fairly close to the GTN net frequency 3549 kHz and slid between two contesters and began calling the net.
Just two or three of us checked in amid the QRM … I had the standard narrow CW filter punched in, and then had to use the DSP to further narrow the bandwidth from 600 Hz to 200-250 Hz. I normally don’t like that narrow a CW filter, but when conditions are as crowded as they were tonight, I needed the extra help.
Right before net time, I decided to switch keys … I have been switching between my 1970 Vibroplex Original DeLuxe and a 1969 Vibroplex Presentation. As you might expect, they have very similar characteristics. One difference is that on the Presentation, I adjusted the main spring to its longest length to slow the dits-per-second rate.
I placed both of those keys aside to make way for my 1938 McElroy Mac Key standard. As you can see in the photo, the key has some sort of rather rough-looking homebrew weight, and some minor surface rust. After working over the contacts for Straight Key Night, I found it plays very well. With my homebrew ugly bug-tamer, the key works just about as slow as you might want to go. This ability to vary the speed is handy to me when I’m tuning the bands and find someone running slower than I normally send. I can quickly move the speed down to more closely match the other station.
When the GTN wrapped up, I slid down the band to 3535 kHz and looked for the KYN (Kentucky CW Net). That part of the band was even more crowded, and I didn’t hear a station calling a net.
SKCC. There’s also an SKCC sprintathon going on this weekend. I was on 40 earlier this 
evening and ran across one of the 2016 K3Y stations working lots of contacts. I was copying the mail and was about to call K3Y/1 when a station with a vaguely familiar call filled my headphones … NC9W … turns out it was a ham who lives just a few miles northwest of me.
I also looked up the SKCC event, and the fact this month marks the 10th anniversary of the SKCC. I was one of the early members who joined after Straight Key Night that year — I am SKCC 286. It’s amazing how quickly the organization grew! And tonight I found out that this month I am — being one of the first-year members — worth 25 bonus points. Looks like I need to stay active this month!
Enough babbling for now, I have a hot cup of coffee to finish before I hit the rack.
73 es CUL de KY4Z SK … dit … dit