W4VD's Home-Brewed Paddle

Here it is, the world's greatest paddle. Look at all the fine machine work.
I was looking for an external keyer for my Alinco DX70TH and placed a WTB on E-Ham. A gentleman offered me the reed keyer that was in QST many years ago, he sent pictures and assure me it worked and would key anything from tubes to transistors, and he only wanted 30 dollars shipping included, when he e-mailed to tell me he got my check and was shipping, he informed me that he had included a paddle at no extra charge, and this is what I got. I was blown away. It beats any Bencher I have owned, as you can see it has many adjustments to get that "feel" just right. It weighs more than a Bencher, quite a bit more, so no sliding, forget about that, even if you are heavy handed like me.
Yes I did write the gent back and thanked him very sincerely and asked him why he gave it to me, he never replied.

This keyer is now sold and in service still.
I invested 28 dollars in a serial port Winkey, and it's great! Took about 15 minutes to build, and running it is a piee of cake! This is a treat for any CW op, I love it, you can jump in on the paddle and take over in a flash. Great watchdog timer, after 128 continuous dits or dahs and it shuts her down,
I gotta get a case for it, it's laying on a PC speaker, I have ran near legal limit as it sits and no rf problems. Steve did a great job on these.



HOME