Saturday, Nov. 19, 2016, 10:30 a.m. — During my excavations of the space under my operating desk (in the hunt for a missing screw that actually wasn’t missing — another story), I uncovered several keys that I had stored there, including five of six Vibroplex keys in their cases, as well as several 
others, including a couple of Les Logan Speed-X keys and a 1920 Vibroplex Junior I hadn’t had on the air in several years.
The Junior still had one of my RCA connector gimmicks attached to it. Without more than dusting it off a bit, the key played great when I tried it out. This particularly key had the base refinished by a previous owner, not the best refinish job but black and relatively smooth. No striping. The upper parts are in really nice shape for a key that was as well used as this one … the contacts show extensive wear, though the plating on the upper parts show only moderate wear.
The other key that caught my eye was an original and unmolested Les Logan Speed-X Model 500. Stored under my desk, these keys only had minor dust accumulation on them. I hadn’t put a Speed-X on the air in quite a while, so I decided to use the Model 500 for my CW net check-in. You forget just how nicely other non-Vibroplex bugs can operate … the Model 500 was adjusted with close spacing and it operated with very little noise … sometimes the damper on a Vibroplex Original can get a little clanky, depending on how you have it adjusted. The Speed-X was sweet, and a pleasure to operate. Both keys are on the operating desk for few turns on the air.
I’ll have more about recent excavation of the space under my operating desk in another update .. until then, 73 es CUL de KY4Z SK … dit dit …