Friday night, July 31, 2020
Tomorrow my son and I travel to a Silent Key friend of mine’s QTH with the intent to purchase his ham gear. I told my wife I planned to sell all of it, but I may end up selling gear I own and keeping some of his, which is in pristine, nearly unused condition.
AS MENTIONED PREVIOUSLY … I wanted to highlight this rather unusual McElroy Mac-Key that I purchased in the past few months on eBay.
MCELROY MODEL 600. The Model 500 and 600 were the last of the Mac-Keys with t-bars and “ears.” These models did not have the metal McElroy nameplate, but did have two decals. The Model 500 was the standard finish key, the Model 600 was the deluxe version with the Marbelite finish and circuit closer.
The key pictured here is what I believe is a Model 600; while it is painted gray, it has a circuit closer, which was only normally found on the deluxe version. The key doesn’t look like it has a Marbelite finish under the gray paint; its textured.
But what makes this key unusual is the screw heads that apparently are used to secure the “t-bar” to the upright mounts. I have never seen a McElroy key with screwheads that are (apparently) used to secure the t-bar like that.
The key also has a very unique thumbpiece; it slides over the keying lever and is not attached with a screw. The finger knob is made of a the same dark brown bakelite type material, and it screws into the keying lever.
The gray, textured finish isn’t just on the top and sides of the key; it continues on the bottom of the key. Where the paint is chipped, it looks like there may be black paint there, but I’m not certain about that. There’s no bare spots showing black that look like an “original” coat of paint.
I haven’t attempted to remove the screws on the t-bar; what I’m wanting to know is if there are other Model 500 or Model 600 keys with similar screw heads? Could this key be a one-off pre-production model? The screw heads being evident were the sole reason I pursued the purchase of the key. I have to other Model 600 keys (Marbelite finished deluxe keys), and none of them show evidence of screw heads to attach the t-bar. Things to ponder …
73 es CUL …. de KY4Z …. SK …. SK …. (dit dit) …