Fall arrival brings improved band conditions

Friday, Sept. 27, 2019 — Its after midnight, but I’m hoping to get an update completed before I head to bed.

It has been a productive day here on the farm. I reassembled a kitchen chair that I had to do major repairs on after my son overstressed one of the legs and ripped the threaded inserts from the square metal tubing that serves as the support for the seat.

I had to break out my MAPP torch set, only to find that the hoses on my 20-year-old set had deteriorated to the point they were leaking more gas than passing to the tip! A trip to Tractor Supply for a new set (ouch!) fixed that, and then I had to braze the mounts back in place. It helps to have a torch set that doesn’t leak away all your gases.

For the past few nights, I’ve been back on the air on CW — and it feels wonderful, too. I have my choice of iambic keys — three different Vibroplex “Racer” models, a Vibrocube, and a Code Warrior Jr. or two — but my key of choice is my early-style Kent iambic key.

It disassembled the key and polished away the tarnish, and its as attractive now as the new Kent models — but unique due to the angular contact arms.

I’ve picked up a few eBay goodies in the last couple of months:

OK, admittedly, this is a cheesy CW key, but I couldn’t pass it up. I actually have another key made by the same person that uses a much smaller key. Hey, you have to admit, its certainly *unique*!

This single paddle keyer was built from a project found in the November 1971 issue of QST magazine. The toggle switch is for power, a knob to adjust the speed is behind the paddle. Powered by a 9v battery,

Yeah, I picked up a very nice condition Ten Tec Omni V on eBay. I have a Paragon already in the shack, so I’m thinking that I’ll sell the Paragon and put the Omni V in its place. The Omni was stripped of filters (boo!!), but I have an extra 500Hz CW filter ready to install. The radio is still in the shipping box … safer there than bouncing around the house unprotected until I can swap it out for the Paragon.

I picked up this Katsumi KM-23 iambic key for a good price, and decided to pull the trigger. These sell relatively cheap, and they’re a very sturdy first key, I think. That assumes that sometime, somewhere, there’s a new ham who pursues learning CW. Sigh!

I’ve got a bunch of stuff to sell on eBay, but my selling has come to a halt while my wife reorganizes the house. Hopefully she’ll be satisfied soon, and I can have my card table back for my eBaying purposes!

73 es CUL … de KY4Z SK …. dit dit …