Monday, March 4, 2016 — My 1920 Vibroplex “Improved” Model X arrived in Saturday’s mail, though I didn’t get a chance to check it out until last night.
For years, I wasn’t sure how the Model X operated. It was hard to envision how the lever could use the single contact point for both dits and dahs. After years of wondering about this, I finally checked YouTube and found some videos that show how ingenious Horace Martin’s “single point” design really was.
The goal was to eliminate the two sets of contacts as used on the Original. Again, its a pretty ingenious — albeit complicated — device. I can see how the more complicated Model X mechanism would present more of an adjustment issue than the Original. I’m really impressed with the key and Martin’s design.
As you might see from the photo at the top of this post, the contact arm looks bent. I was concerned about this but decided to try to bid anyway. The contact arm wasn’t bent, but was stuck against the “dah” keying arm adjustment screw. After some time playing with the key and figuring out the adjustments, it was playing pretty well despite the need to clean up the contact.
The physical condition of the key is pretty nice. The black japanning is in very good shape, and the carriage striping is still visible on about 40 percent of the key. The Vibroplex “bug” sticker is in pretty good shape (the sticker came before Vibroplex put the bug on their name plates soon the same year this was manufactured, 1920 or so).
The key only has one weight, and being the “Improved” Model X, the weights are round like those on the Original. I need to add a second one, the key is a little hot for my sending ability. Adding my homebrew bug tamer gets a little complicated by the Model X infrasctructure.
For now I’ll continue to play with the key and to fine tune the adjustments. I may add that second weight too, it just isn’t as easy as with an Original.
The case that came with the key is in pretty good shape, though one of the rails on the inside was missing, and the remaining one was knocked loose in transit. No damage to the key, thankfully.
Well, my work awaits, plus I need to box up the TS-450S and power supply to drop off at Fed Ex.
73 es CUL de KY4Z SK … dit dit …