Plans for machining a CW Keyer? (Ham Radio)

[DMC-VIN2447]

Anybody have any drawings or plans for CW Keyers? Looking for ones of the iambic-keyer/paddle variety.

Thanks.

Regards,
Wayne / AA9DY.com

[BobWarfield]

That would be a fun project. Weren't those called "bugs"?

It's been many many years since I had my ham license, but I recall enjoying it. Got my code speed up to about 20 wpm. I would think it is a dying art these days.

Best,

BW

[dp]

Are you looking for plans for a pure mechanical bug or one to drive an electronic keyer? I had one of each around here but couldn't guarantee I could find either

Here's the Vibroplex drawing: http://www.vibroplex.com/iambic_machine_drawing2.pdf


Edit: Bob - this has CNC project written all over it

WA6ZGL

[dp]

That would be a fun project. Weren't those called "bugs"?

It's been many many years since I had my ham license, but I recall enjoying it. Got my code speed up to about 20 wpm. I would think it is a dying art these days.

Best,

BW

Way back in the mid 1970's I built a CMOS logic iambic keyer. It was the coolest and most complex thing I'd ever wire wrapped on breadboard. It worked great. When I moved from SoCal to Washington I sold all the ham gear to a kid in High School - a Collins 75-A receiver, a Heath SB-101, an electonic TR switch, bunches of accessories, a multi-band trap vertical antenna and a 20 meter yagi with a Ham-M rotator: $200 bux for the lot. Kinda wish I still that that receiver...

[DMC-VIN2447]

Thanks! Looking to home brew one for an electronic keyer that is built in my rig. I already have a Bencher Paddle, but would like to try to make one by myself for fun without copying the one I have. Looking for something different like the one you posted.

I'm not a hard-core CW fan. I've been dabbling in CW namely for contesting and working on my DXCC.

Regards,
Wayne / AA9DY.com

[Evan]

One of the first things I did when I bought my original Commodore PET computer in '79 was write a International Morse encoder/decoder for it with an interface to my Comm receiver. It worked pretty well with a clean signal. I eventually also wrote decoder/display programs for slowscan fax and satellite images.

Here is a slowscan satellite image:



I never did get around to getting my Ham licence. Now CW really isn't very meaningful. The old argument that it can get through when nothing else will no longer holds.

[dp]

When I still had that old Collins receiver I ran a phone patch for a guy stuck on Johnson Island in the Pacific. His mum lived in the same town I did. He was transmitting with SSB and I responded with cw as SSB was out of band for me on the frequency he was using. After we exchanged pleasantries he asked if I'd call his mum and phone patch her in. She could hear him talk and I transcribed her part in CW back to him. Had I another xmitter I could have had her talk back cross-channel, but the CW/SSB mix worked well and made everyone quite happy.

That was 1974 and I was burning 10 watts on a home-brew solid state rig I'd built from my own design. I still like and prefer CW but I use QRP - less than 5 watts. That 5 watts has been picked up all over the world. Irrelevant for sure as a communications method, but still fun. I also like to use teletype - the old baudot version. Never really cared for using a mic.

Some day I'm probably going to have a stroke and I've already told my wife to expect me to try to use Morse code to communicate when everything else fails. It's an oldie but a goodie.

[Mike W]

I got my novice license when I was in high school. I think I was on the air every night for 6 months. My code speed went up and I passed the general test with no problems. It is a good hobby and I owe it as a stepping stone to a career in electronics.

[Evan]

Although I never got my Ham licence I do have a class 2 radio operator licence for Canada with aircraft and marine endorsement. I believe that is equivalent to the technician class amateur licence.

[Your Old Dog]

Now CW really isn't very meaningful. The old argument that it can get through when nothing else will no longer holds.

LOL! That would be debated in ham circles!! The second day I had my Icom 746 I was on my way to work in the company van (mobile) I had Figi Islands on at about 8:00AM on 20mm CW. The guy was right in the grass as they say but with the filters cut in I could just make him out for a DX contact. That contact sure made the radio feel like a real tool to me! I could never have made that contact on anything but CW. The really funny thing is I had no keyer at the time, I had to use the 4 or 5 programable memorys in the radio to make a standard DX contact.

I later built a wooden case for it. If you go to www.qrz.com and type in NV2A you can see the setup I had in the car. It was a lot of fun and I loved CW having got the speed up to conversational levels at around 30wpm. With that mobile setup I had something like 135 countries worked!

I went from Novice to Extra class in 1 year and 8 days thanks to (I've forgotten the term) having made the liscense more "fair" for people who aren't as bright to get it. The General test I took in the 70's was 10 harder than the Extra I took in 90's.

de NV2A QRZ DX