I was delighted to find a box on my doorstep this afternoon — and from the size and heft, I knew it was one of my long-awaited bugs!
It turned out to be the 1931 Vibroplex Lightning Bug DeLuxe I won on eBay recently. It's much nicer a key that the photos indicated. It is missing the paddle, but Vibroplex can provide new repros, which I'll order next week.
The key wasn't in bad adjustment at all. I quickly had it running smooth, though the contacts could use cleaning. Even without the paddle, the key worked well and has a very nice feel. I'm sure it's going to play even better with a thumb piece.
For kicks I decided to use some Flitz on the base to see if it had any shine. Boy howdy, me thinks it's going to clean up pretty good. It has some definite rust spots and corrosion in the nickel plating, but it's still got some luster left in the old plating. I think it's going to clean up nicely. It's my first DeLuxe Lightning Bug — not as nice as I would like, but nice enough for a bug that's 75 years old.
I was going to put my black Les Logan Speed-X T-bar key on the air tonight, and while I was making a cable for it I wound up in a conversation with a friend on 2 meter simplex. I yacked the night away, but I did get the cable done.
I have been trying to find some thin, flexible but strong cable to use with my bugs. I have keying lines from my rigs that end at the desktop, where I can switch them to any key I chose. I've been making some “pigtails” terminated with RCA jacks to add to some of my keys to make it easier to switch among them.
The best choice I found at my local Radio Shack was some very small 3-conductor rotor wire under the RCA brand. Very flexible, very small. Nice black small cable. Much better than telephone cable.
That's all for now, it's after 3 am here. That's what I get for staying up talking when I should be working CW!