I love the Fall of the year! The sweltering temperatures of the dog days of summer are gone, leaving us with beautiful autumn days of golden leaves and dark blue skies.
I've been operating CW late at night lately too. Just finished a QSO with Sam, K9GHD in Bellerive, IL on 80 Meters. Sam is 63 and was running an Icom IC-746 with 50 watts.
For the last 3 years or so, my primary CW rig has been my Heathkit HW-16, which is a Novice tri-band rig from the early 1970s. It covers 80, 40 and 15 meters CW. It's not really a true transceiver, but a 5 tube receiver in the same cabinet with a 3 tube transmitter connected with a T/R switch.
The little rig works great. Sam told me he built one years ago and it worked great for him. I call my HW-16 my “conversation starter” — it seems most hams have owned a Heathkit of some kind, and I get many, many comments on the rig.
One of my other rigs in the shack is a Tempo 2020 station (rig, VFO, matching speaker), and it's a SUPER cw setup. But between the two rigs, the Heathkit always seemed to stimulate more conversations and ragchews than the Tempo.
The HW-16 is just more of a retro radio, and that's reason enough to like it. I've added an outboard DSP to it and that's made the rig a lot more functional during periods when there are lots of signals on the band.
The HW-16 is stable and has no chirp, and it's surprised several hams who have commented on its good note. Why not run a rig that starts good QSOs??
K9GHD was booming in tonight. He was incredibly loud (the HW-16 has no S-meter, but he was way of S9), and I could work him without the cans, which makes for a nice leisurely QSO.
The key I'm using is my Vibroplex Zephyr, serial no. 151,2001. I'm still not getting the quality sending I wish I could get with this key. It's not necessarily the key's fault, though it's easy to blame it.
I keep flubbing dits from time to time with the Zephyr. I think I need to oil the pivot points, it seems to bind from time to time. The main spring action is pretty fast, and my extra weight isn't exactly slowing it down enough for the speeds I'm operating. The dits are too fast still.
I moved one of my older Vibroplex Originals back on the desk, and it just seems to be a lot smoother operating. This one is a 1925 Original with the black japanned base. It needs a few new parts, but it's operational as is right now. I think if I operate CW tomorrow, I'll try this key.
NEW KEYS. I have two new additions to my code key collection enroute to my QTH.
I have a nearly new Vibroplex Original De Luxe coming, hopefully this week. It's a 2000 model, and in like-new condition. It'll be sweet to have one that won't need some reconditioning. It'll look sharp on the desktop, too.
I have a 1960 Vibroplex Blue Racer coming in the next week or so also. The Blue Racer has a grey base. I think it'll be an interesting key to use.
I've got another EF Johnson Speed-X key coming, a model 515. It's very much like my other Speed-X bugs, but it's missing the weight. Hopefully it'll be in decent shape.
I also have a 1921 Vibroplex Junior coming. This will be the first Junior I own, so that will be a treat. I've got plenty of bugs on the way to try out on the desk, so that'll keep things interesting!
It's time for bed, so I'm pulling the plug and signing off.
73 es CUL de KY4Z … SK … dit dit ….