I've spent a few hours tonight working on a bug I bought recently. It's a 1951 Vibroplex Presentation model, and it's a little bit sad. At some point, it's had a hard life; the dot […]

I've been up late playing with my code keys this evening. We had a ham radio club meeting tonight, which I had to lead in the absence of our president. We are having a special […]

It was like Christmas in September today at my home … between FedEx and the USPS, I wound up with lots of stuff today. It's been a ham radio Saturday today, too. My daughter and […]

I've never heard as many hams operating so many emergency nets, trying to handle all kinds of communications into and out of the affected areas in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The 75 meter band […]

I received a new CW key in the mail yesterday. This is an old key (arent' all of mine “old”???), and one I've wanted to try for many years. It's an old Autronic key — […]

I spent some time this afternoon in my shop fabricating a new thumb piece (paddle) for one of my J-36 semi-automatic keys. I purchased some 1/8-inch black acrylic sheet scrap from eBay a week or […]

I sat down with my new Vibroplex book and the actual unmarked key and compared point-by-point all the differences between it and the standard Vibroplex Original. I've decided that my earlier conclusion is just flat […]

My telephone order from Vibroplex arrived today. It included the 100th year anniversary history book on the company, along with some parts: 3 finger pieces, 2 old-style bakelite thumb pieces and screws, and 2 sets […]

Of the two Lionel J-36 semi-automatic keys I received a week or so again, I have them both in great shape. It's simply amazing how well they both cleaned up — the photos made them […]

One of my much-anticipated Vibroplex telegraph keys arrived in today's mail — in fact, I had to get dressed to meet the mailman at the door. I was excited to see it come, though I […]