With our rental house sold and signed away, I felt the need for some new hardware for the shack.
I had quit looking at bugs and cw hardware on eBay for the past few months, focusing instead on not spending money. We got stuck in a money pinch back in November, so I had to cut back on expenses.
With the house nearly sold, I felt it was safe to once again watch for “good deals” on eBay.
It was an auction that closed in mid-week. A seller had two bugs for sale, a Vibroplex Original, serial no. 139644, dating to early 1945; the second was a very mint condition “Cedar Rapids Bug” manufactured by the Electric Specialy Manufacturing Co. of Cedar Rapids.
Both of them were in great shape, and neither was selling for much. I sniped them both at the last 5 seconds of the auction.
The Vibroplex is a nice as the photos show. It has a couple of issues, but nothing serious — the terminal screws are not stock (they're modern brass knurled screws, similar to original but not chrome plated); the finger piece is missing (probably removed by a former user); and it is missing the nut that secures the damper wheel. It came loose in transit, but I couldn't find the nut in the box.
The key otherwise is in very good shape. It shows some wear on the pendulum, the weight rod is pretty scarred, and there's some marks on the frame near the top pinion adjustment. It looks used, but not abused. The contacts are in excellent shape.
The key has the post-War frame and damper, which appear to have been installed hit or miss in 1945. Some keys have the old style, some had the newer style. Note that the contact posts are the “old” style (not rounded and smoothed like the later posts).
The ID plate on this bug is the wartime type, made of tin rather than the usual brass. Brass was needed for the war effort, so Vibroplex stamped its plates from tin, then painted them to resemble brass. Most of these plates from WWII-era keys show some corrosion and/or paint loss. The paint is worn on this one, revealing the tin. There's no major rust there, so that's good.
The second bug is the mint-condition Cedar Rapids bug. I already have a couple of these bugs, and they're interesting. They circumvented the Vibroplex patent by selling their key as a kit. It's rather cheaply made compared to the Vibroplex, but you could get one for a fraction of the cost.
This one is in mint condition, though I've wondered about a paper or cardboard cover that's seen on some photos of this bug. It looks like there was a cover that hid the bottom parts of the bug (i.e., the electrical connections, etc.). None of mine have had this, so I'm not sure if the one I saw was stock or the paper covering was something added by the builder or later owner.
This key is the best of all of mine. It operates smoothly, and the base and hardware are nearly perfect.
Neither of these keys was expensive — the Vibroplex went for less than $38, and the Cedar Rapids bug went for slightly more (probably because of its excellent condition).
All in all, I'm tickled to death to get these keys. They took a while to get here too …. the seller goofed up his payment setup, and I wound up paying him for the keys and shipping for one key. I hadn't paid attention to my e-mails when I realized he was short some postage, and he was nearly ready to cancel the transaction if I didn't come up with another $9 to cover shipping.
He did a fantastic job packing them, boxing each one individually, then boxing them again in a very well protected box. I repacked the keys in their individual boxes after I inspected them, prompting my wife to ask me why I was doing that.
Safely packed in the boxes is the safest place for the keys at the moment. Until I get a chance to unpack them in the shack for cleaning and trying them on-the-air, I didn't want to jeopardize their condition by letting them get banged around.
My wife is awake and I guess that means we'll be doing something “constructive” … sigh! Wish me luck! hi hi
73 es CUL … de KY4Z …. sk