Morse key and paddle collection

Over time, I’ll be adding photos of the keys I’ve collected over the last few years.

Some came new. Others, such as the antique World War 1 key, have come “previously owned.”

Feel free to browse. You’ll see as this photo collection grows that I’ve taken a shine (pun partially intended) to mini keys.

Here’s the giant in the collection:

Key Concepts SKCC Club Key, which I affectionately call my blunderbuss. It's a wonderful key, but I used only for going after BIG DX! Just to give you a sense of scale, this four-pounder's base is about 9 inches long, roughly three times the length of the KK1, below.

The Shrimps

(No base is longer than 3 inches)

American Morse's KK1 mini key, after an encounter with a Dremel and some polish. The hardwood finger piece comes courtesy of Gregg Mulder, WB8LZG

This key was made by WB9LPU, Richard Meiss, long a man of precision machining. He makes them, and sells them, but more often than not is experimenting with new key designs. On this key, the tension is tweaked via the small screw-and-spring combo behind the finger piece. The gap is adjusted using the aluminum knob in front and tightened into place by the blue skirt, which doubles as a lock nut.

American Morse Equipment's new MS2, which debuted at the Dayton Hamvention this year (2011)

Vibroplex's Code Mite straight key

CT-1 mini key, serial number 076. I found mine on eBay for a fraction of retail. It has yet to feel the touch of my Dremel, but it will! Boowahaha!

Soviet special-forces key. Another eBay pick-up, its base plate is designed to slide into another plate used with a leg strap. Love the Russian design -- not flashy, but it works.

A Jardillier French special-forces key. It's more-heavily engineered that the Soviet special-forces key. And as the next image shows...

...it's a convertible! The top slides back for connections and key adjustments. The snap on top is for a leg strap. I came across a ham selling these at NEARFest, a New England hamfest, two years ago. He had a bunch of them!

World War 1 field-telegraph key, which I cleaned up and remounted during the summer of 2010. Oh, yes, it was another eBay pick-up.

British military field key from World War 2 -- another eBay special.

This marvelous little key was handmade by a German amateur-radio operator, DK7UD, who passed away in 2004. Like many of the keys on this page, this was an eBay special.

The mini key is from an old field-test kit made for AT&T by Western Electric. The key itself was made by J.H. Bunnell. The base? Pure whimsy.

Here's the same Western Electric key, but I mounted it on a finished piece of mahogany.

Standard-size keys

This is a Baumuster T-1 key, used during World War 2 key by the German Luftwaffe's communications corps. Typical German engineering, I guess, but this has about the smoothest action of any key its size that I've tried.

Another German key, a Junker, from a ham-radio operator in Poland. Many thanks, Stan! Perhaps not surprising, but the folks who gave you BMWs and Porches also make some of the smoothest military keys out there.

On the other side of that conflict, we have the ubiquitous and hardy J-38 key, used by the US Army Signal Corps. Manufacturers continued to produce these keys well after the war ended and remain quite popular among straight-key-pounding hams.

Meanwhile, over with the British Royal Air Force, bombers were outfitted with the "bath tub" key. The mechanism is inside the housing, which is held shut by the wire clamp in front. The key is designed to turn the plane's radio into a beacon if the aircraft went down. The operator moved the wire clamp up over the bottom lip of the key's knob. This held the key down to send a continuous signal rescuers could home in on. A rubber gasket around the base of the knob kept water out if the plane had to ditch.

This is one version of a US Navy flameproof key. The mechanism is enclosed to ensure no sparks the contacts might have generated ignited fuel fumes. This is another key with a very smooth action.

This is a (civilian) Nye key with a rectangular base and a Navy-style knob. Another eBay pick-up, this key needed some gentle touches with my Dremel tool to shine up the nickel parts.

A Nye-Speedex oval-base key with a Navy knob on an oak base. The key came from eBay and is roughly 30 years old, but came as-new because the owner kept it unopened as a back-up key.

 

It's a mint Grimmer-Wilson Canadian military key, picked up off eBay from a collector down to his last new-old stock specimen. Came in the orignal box.

Key used by the Czech Army in the early 1950s. I picked this up as new-old stock from a distributor in the UK. The design is somewhat unusual. The action is very nice. And with the action enclosed, it's a quiet key. I did modify the plug, however -- converting it from a two-prong plug that looked like it was destined for a wall socket rather than a radio to a standard 1/4-inch phone plug. It was my first time working with cloth-insulated wire. I prefer today's insulation!

Semi-automatic keys (bugs)

Vibroplex Original Standard from 1963. I picked this up for a song off of eBay and look forward to spiffing it up with some polish and a fresh coat of paint on the base.

Keyer paddles

This Vibroplex Code Warrior Junior is a recent addition to the collection. It's the commercial version of paddles originally designed as a kit and sold through the Norcal QRP Club.

American Morse Equipment's PortaPaddle 2. I keep this, along with my Jardillier mini key, in my QRPxpedition "go pouch." It's a remarkable little paddle from a kit that's a quick build.

I bought this Bencher BY-1 about 30 years ago, dug it out from the bottom of a junk box when I returned to ham radio after a long hiatus, and added some nice hardwood finger pieces from Gregg Mulder, WB8LZG. They sure look better than the original plastic!