Saturday, Nov. 14, 2020
This week while excavating in the shack, I dug up a USPS Priority Mail box from 2013 that was never opened. Judging by its weight, my guess was that it was a CW key.
I had no earthly idea what was in the box, just it had a 7-year-old postmark. Inside the box I found a very nicely packaged homebrew bug.
Unlike a lot of homebrew keys, this key was not only new-to-me, but was brand new! The key was built by NK1V, David Jones, of Unicoi, Tenn. Unicoi is just south of Johnson City in far East Tennessee.
Anyway, I don’t remember what the eBay listing had to say about the key, but the photos really tell the tale.
The pivot frame is made of stainless steel, as are contact posts. The main frame is just a “U”-shaped affair; the key uses posts with adjustable stops to limit the key lever’s left and right travel. A spring is mounted on the left post to provide the needed push to bring the lever back to center.
The only brass parts are the contact screws and the terminal screws.
I love the satin finish on the stainless steel parts. The key’s action is snappy and rather fast; the keying lever appears to be thicker and taller than what you will find on a Vibroplex, and thus, the spring steel spring is noticeably taller than a Vibroplex, all adding to its springiness. The damper has a rubber bumper, which does a great job of keeping the damper noise dampened.
The base appears to be finished in a gloss black. The bottom of the key has the year the key was made and a serial number.
Do any of my readers have more information on these keys? When I Google NK1V, there’s not much information out there beyond his license data information.
I plan to keep using the key for a while, but I’m likely to wrap it up and rebox it for safe keeping when I am done. I have more than a dozen keys on the three desks that make up my operating position, and one of the things I need to do is to properly store those keys for safe keeping — at least the ones I want to keep. I plan to return to keeping my primary keys at the desk — which includes my treasured Rotoplex, my 100th Anniversary Vibroplex Original, and anyone of a variety of McElroy keys — possibly my earliest McElroy, my 1935.
The NK1V bug was the first bug I’ve had on the air in months; tonight on my traffic net I had scratchy dits. I didn’t have time to try to clean or adjust the dit contact, so I switched to my Vibroplex Vibrocube.
ANOTHER SHACK EXCAVATION FIND. Prior to the net this evening, I found another new key I had actually opened long enough to confirm the key arrived safely — an AC7AZ dual paddle magnetic return key.
According to Mark Johnston, AC7AZ, comments on the Eham.net reviews for his paddles, he never intended to go into production of paddles. He made 18 large keys and 14 keys and some straight keys and single paddle keys.
Apparently I opened the box long enough to peek at the key then closed it back up. The key has Mark’s call stamped on the bottom along with a serial number. I’ll have more on this key in a later post, complete with photos.
73 es CUL … de KY4Z … SK … SK …. (dit dit) …