Monday, March 14, 2016, 12:30 a.m. — I should be in front of my radio tonight, but it can be hard to scare up a contact this time of day (night) on 40 CW.
Tonight I made the Georgia CW net and cleaned up a Lionel J-36 that has been sitting around. I noticed it Sunday in a rather precarious position near the edge of a shelf, so close that it wouldn’t be difficult to knock it off the edge while brushing against it on the way out of the shack.
I was trying to get the J-36 ready in time for the net, but I had to go over the dot and dash contacts and clean them thoroughly. Rather than use Tarn-X, I realized that if I clean the silver contacts like the rest of the bright parts of the key, they’ll come out clean without the harsh chemicals. I tried Flitz on the contacts and they cleaned up well. Once clean, I washed them well with water to clean any lingering residue away.
I think I’ve mentioned this particular J-36 before in this space. Cheapskate that I am, I wouldn’t have bought it unless it was worth the money. I was able to quickly get it adjusted nicely for future use.
The key is nice, but not perfect. The dash spring keeper is a knurled brass nut that isn’t correct. the screw and nut holding the circuit closer on are either wrong or reversed (the nut is on top and there’s no spring to keep the switch from flopping around and making accidental contact). But the finish on the base is perfect, and the plated parts are in original, as-found and uncorroded condition.
What plating was used on the J-36? Obviously it isn’t chrome or nickel. Cadmium? I don’t know enough about industrial coatings to know which non-chrome or non-nickel it might be.
And of course, you can see my jury-rigged and homebrew RCA adapter that I make as-needed for my keys, it allows me to quickly unplug one bug and plug in another. It works very well, and its an inexpensive way to quickly swap keys without dealing with cords on every key you own. Did I mention its cheap?
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Saturday, March 12, 2016 — My parts order from Vibroplex arrived Saturday — a couple of days after the ARRL Centennial key arrived that I order Monday. I guess the difference is how First Class mail is handled versus packages.
My order included a new dot contact spring assembly and new finger and thumb pieces (red, of course!). One interesting thing about this key is the fact that there is no small copper braid to connect the keying lever to the pivot frame. I have assumed it needed one because the Presentation keys and other DeLuxe keys I’ve seen (that I remember) seemed to all have this braid to make sure the lever provided a solid path to ground for the contact posts.
I installed the dot contact spring and then reinstalled the lever. The pivot frame has never been drilled and tapped for the aforementioned braid; perhaps it isn’t necessary. I still need to re-glue the nameplate, though I’m guessing that a contact-type cement will be sufficient.
I’m thinking that before I glue the nameplate down, I’m going to need to disassemble the key and really clean it. Then I can glue the nameplate on.
The new finger and thumbpieces are slightly different than the original ones; oh, they’re the same color, just their finish is more of a dull, matte finish rather than shiny, polished red. Not complaining, just observing.
I really didn’t take time to properly adjust the key, perhaps later.
While I worked on the key, I was tuning 40 CW and found a chap from Ohio calling CQ about 7.120. He was my first CW ragchew in quite a while, and I had a good time chatting. He was running classic tube gear with separate rcvr/txmtr and rockbound at that. Made me went to fire up my HW-16, which I think I will next weekend.
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