This project was born out from the odd comments made from
discussions on Morse keys in general, for some time it has intrigued me why
quite experienced CW operators insist on singing the praises of keys that
although quite operational are by in my opinion only barely average in
performance? and then the penny dropped, these guys had never used an
excellent key! their experiences were limited to ex military and
rather doubtful commercial keys, so their comments on key quality was
limited by their experiences. Having built over One hundred and sixty keys
of all shapes sizes and performance myself, and with tooling that is
primitive in the extreme (well it was initially) I've been thinking along
the lines of a project key that anyone could make using mostly tools and
bits found in the average shack or garage, the aim would be to produce a key
with an excellent action that is "fine tuned" to meet the expectations and
operating preferences of the person making it, and also along the way to
inspire a sense of uniqueness and wide thinking into the construction,
at various points in the construction refinements could be added or left out
and the consequences discussed, any comments or problems could be aired on
the Telegraphy net, and above all it has to be low cost to meet the true
traditions of Amateur radio. Now I know this has been done many times before
and there quite a few online projects for making a key, but I like to think
this one will be different and not only that I'm going to get a lot of fun
out of doing it :()
The project will be aimed at the average Amateur (if there is such a person)
most Amateur radio enthusiasts I know do have a background of being
practical people, simply by setting up a shack making masts or rigging
antennas brings them into the world of tools and judgements on what will
work and what won't, and most Hams are hoarders by nature, in every shack
there are usually little boxes with nuts and bolts and bits and pieces that
"may come in useful one day" well that day has arrived, and it won't matter
if you make mistakes as we are not dealing with anything expensive, the
worst that can happen is you lose a few hours work or maybe the odd drop of
blood from being careless, there is a good saying "The man that never made a
mistake never made anything" Print that out and stick it on the wall and
when you goof look at it and laugh :()
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