Anyone Doing SKN?

[AJ1G]

Could not get on during HMN for a variety of reasons, bit will likely be on in the wee hours of the new year for SKN.  Anyone else going to be on?  In honor of being on the air for 45 years as of Jan. 4th, 2012, will run my DX-40 from home on 80 and later go down to Stonington Point for some sunrise 40 CW QRP mobile with the K1.  Should  be good WX for some nice  photos down there.  Happy New Year gang!

[W3GMS]

Chris,
I will be on SKN.  Probably mostly on the low end of 80 from around 7 to 9 and maybe a bit on 40 tomorrow.  I will be using my DX-60, HG-10 and since I just noticed that the HR-10 has some problems, I will press into service a Drake 2B RCVR.   The key will be my favorite, which is a Navy Flame Proof key.  Looking at the rules you can use a Bug as well.  So maybe my Vibroplex narrow base Blue Racer will be pressed into service.   2012 marks my 46th year since I got my Novice ticket.  I had a lot of fun operating SKN last year. 

Hopefully we will hear some other AM'ers on SKN. 

73,
Joe, W3GMS
     

[KE2EE]

     I will be on SKN  80/40m with my Multi-Elmac and HQ-110 combo. My key will be the Navy Flameproof ( as Joe said). Its great to hear all those older rigs and keys being used again.  
Mike  

[W3GMS]

Good  deal Mike, and I hope we are able to work on CW. 

It's funny, I had all year to get the Drake and DX-60 working and I just finished it up about 15 minutes ago! 

73,
Joe, GMS 

[WA1GFZ]

big meal 3 glasses of wine  lead butt setting in.

[Burt]

Could not get on during HMN for a variety of reasons, bit will likely be on in the wee hours of the new year for SKN.  Anyone else going to be on?  In honor of being on the air for 45 years as of Jan. 4th, 2012, will run my DX-40 from home on 80 and later go down to Stonington Point for some sunrise 40 CW QRP mobile with the K1.  Should  be good WX for some nice  photos down there.  Happy New Year gang!

I ran my DX-40 and S-76, one RST was 333, the next was 500
Go figure

[Carl WA1KPD]

Ran the original novice xmtr, a Johnson Adventurer and my 2nd  rcvr a Drake 2B. Had about a dozen contacts on 40 CW and listened a lot while I worked at the desk. Good time  and was pleasantly surprised by the amount of activity.

Also made my hotel reservations for Spring NEARFest today.... I'm in a radio state of mind
Happy New Year to all
Carl
/KPD

[W3GMS]

Well 80 CW was really active during SKN.  I am glad I had narrow filter in the Drake 2B so I did not have to do what I did as a novice when you heard 5 signals at the same time and just zeroed in on the pitch of the one you wanted to copy.  I did that last year with the HR-10!  The band was loaded and at times it was tough to find a spot to call CQ.  I guess I should have checked out 40 meters but with all the activity on 80 I never made it to 40. 

Joe, W3GMS   

[WU2D]

Here you go Chris - watch this and call me in the morning: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2IlIrYPTSM

[WQ9E]

I planned to be on with a Johnson Adventurer/Mosley CM-1 station but mother nature sent a wind storm which took down a corner of the horizontal loop I use with the vintage gear in the house.  Rather than move to the contest setup in the barn I stayed inside with a glass of Jim Beam instead of a key.

I did listen a bit using a Philips portable and heard some pretty good fists.

[W1RKW]

Whenever I see SKN for some reason I think silent key night and I'm usually sleeping when it happens.

[AF9J]

I got on for SKN, with my Ten Tec Century 21 (the analog dial version), and the Bencher RJ-1 straight key I've had since the mid 90s.  I thought about using my Vibroplex Champion Bug, but it's basically shot (I bought it off of evilBay 4 years ago - it's a bitsa, that was made by the seller out of several Champion Bugs [it was all I could afford at the time]).  I can't get it to swing properly for dits, to save my life.  Unfortunately, it's iffy at best, trying to get parts for square weight bugs.  I'm still kicking myself, for selling the Vibroplex Lightning Bug I'd had since my Novice days, back in 2007 - I had that thing set up so well!    

I had 3 nice SKN ragchews (2 on 80m, and 1 on 20m), and would have had some more, if I hadn't been so burned out from a viral infection, that I still haven't completely shaken off.  Nonetheless, I had fun!    

[K5UJ]

I am working on my vibro J-36 WW2 surplus lightning bug.  I too got mine as a novice and used it all through my 100% CW days in the 1970s.  Back then I had it working pretty good.  I always had trouble with it moving around--it just doesn't have enough weight to stay put for my fist.  I have been getting it going again but it isn't like it was.  I have taken it apart and cleaned it up and cleaned the contacts but getting the balance, contact spacing and dit stop right is tricky.  The dit stop is what I call the thumb screw that sticks in and stops the vibrating arm just right so it waggles to make dits--it should make about 10 of them or more I think.  There has to be enough distance to get kinitic energy to it waggles good but not so much distance that you have this huge paddle travel to get dits. 

Keep messing with yours and you'll get it right but it takes some time futzing with it.  clean the contacts with a fresh dollar bill.  Having a code practice oscillator handy make it easier to test and adjust.

[k4kyv]

big meal 3 glasses of wine  lead butt setting in.

That happens to me a lot.  I sometimes doze off after I decide to relax after dinner and "let my food settle". But it usually means waking up about midnight, wired for several hours of late night radio. Problem is, "nocturnal emissions" are heard on the bands ever less frequently, even on weekend nights when there is no static or QuaRMtest going on.

I find a straight hand key too tedious for anything but a very brief QSO on CW.  I have a homebrew iambic keyer using one of those little Curtis IC chips and an expensive magnetic-repulsive paddle, but never became comfortable using the thing. I prefer my 1920s vintage Vibroplex original with the japanned base and gold stripe.  That thing was a basket case when I picked it up at Dayton about 10 years ago, but after I cleaned and repaired it, although well-worn, it sends with velvet smoothness, better than anything else I have ever touched. The straight hand key and electronic keyer are gathering dust on the shelf.

I work 95-98% AM, and maybe 2-5% CW and no SSB.  Not sure that a mechanical bug qualifies as a "straight" key, however.

[K5UJ]

I got a NOS Czech mil. surplus straight key with enclosed contacts at the Ft.Wayne hamfest in 2010, set it down amongst some parts and gear in the dining room (which never is used for dining) and promptly forgot I had it, until I found it looking for a bag of AC wall switches a few days ago.  I could have used that and had a genuwine straight key.  Maybe next time, but I'll have to put it in the shack so I don't forget about it again. 

I think I participated in the first SKN--I remember when it was new in the early 1970s.  It was never a "contest" but more of a congenial activity, sort of the CW version of heavy metal night.

Terry, Straight Mic NIght would have to require that the mic be run right into the rig IMO, no outboard audio gear.

[W3GMS]

Don,
According to ARRL, Bug's do qualify.  I was surprised to hear that, but they do.  Of all my keys, I like my narrow base Vibroplex Blue Racer Bug the best. 
My Navy Flame Proof Key when properly adjusted allows me to send hours without getting tired.  I started around 7PM and was using the old pump handled until 1:30 in the morning and never got tired while using the key.  For keyers, I built a James Garret, WB4VVF Accu Keyer from a late 60's or early 70's QST article.  It uses all TTL type logic and works extremely well.  I seem to be able to switch from the keyer to the bug without any issues, but I still like the individuality of the BUG or Straight Key so that's what I use the most. 

And yes, SKN was the CW version of the type of QSO's found on HMR. 

Joe, W3GMS         

[k4kyv]

The way to send for hours at at time with a straight hand key is to mount the key right at the edge of the table and let your elbow JS-dangle and swing freely while your forearm is supported by your hand as it holds the key.  The table has to be adjusted just to the correct height, and your chair has to be just the right distance away from the table.  Once you find that sweet spot, which is a very relaxed position, some old timers claim they could send for hours without fatigue.

Resting your forearm, or worse still, your forearm and elbow on the table with the key about a foot away from the edge (the way nearly all the ham radio beginner's manuals showed to do it) eventually results in what those old timers used to call the "glass arm" syndrome.

[K5MO]

Yep, it was fun...used a variety of rigs and ended up with just a few long ragchews, but that's the point, not a diversion. Used a Navigator/2B combo and the 2NT/2C/2CQ combo.   

It's fun and it always reminds me why I send most often with a keyer.

John K5MO

[Carl WA1KPD]

A Navigator..... My dream rig in the 60e
Life is not fair. 
Carl
/KPD

[AF9J]

I am working on my vibro J-36 WW2 surplus lightning bug.  I too got mine as a novice and used it all through my 100% CW days in the 1970s.  Back then I had it working pretty good.  I always had trouble with it moving around--it just doesn't have enough weight to stay put for my fist.  I have been getting it going again but it isn't like it was.  I have taken it apart and cleaned it up and cleaned the contacts but getting the balance, contact spacing and dit stop right is tricky.  The dit stop is what I call the thumb screw that sticks in and stops the vibrating arm just right so it waggles to make dits--it should make about 10 of them or more I think.  There has to be enough distance to get kinitic energy to it waggles good but not so much distance that you have this huge paddle travel to get dits.  

Keep messing with yours and you'll get it right but it takes some time futzing with it.  clean the contacts with a fresh dollar bill.  Having a code practice oscillator handy make it easier to test and adjust.

I can't seem to get the dits to swing more than 4 or 5, to save my life.  I've adjusted the dit contact, and the arm stop screws, dozens of times.  The only thing I can figure, is that the spring steel in the arm is worn out, and/or the coil spring is shot.  It's also possible the brass u-spring, that's part of the dit contact, is also sacked out (spreading it out doesn't seem to help much).  When I had my Lightning Bug, it took me all of 3 days, as a clueless Novice, to get it to dit like crazy.  Every adjustment I made afterwords, was related to mainly just getting decent dit contact, at higher speeds.  It was nowhere near the hassle, this Champion Bug has been.

Like I mentioned earlier - my Champion Bug, is just a parts bin special, the eBay seller cobbled together, from multiple bugs.  I have no idea what the ages are of the individual parts.  For all I know, some of the parts might not even be Champion Bug correct.  But, at the time, I was el-broke-o, and it was all I could afford for a Bug.  So, I took a chance, and bought it.  

Oh, and Vibroplex confirmed to me via e-mail, that most of the parts for the square weight bugs, are not available anymore.  

My main CW weapon of choice, is a Bencher, single lever paddle (hey what can I say?, 20 plus years of bug use, before I went the keyer route, messed me up for double lever paddles  ), and a keyer.

[K5UJ]

It's probably your bug being a bunch of parts from different ones, but I'd completely take it apart and clean everything and put it back together again.  I did that with mine.  Vibroplex is still in business (I think ownership has changed a dozen times over the years) but now it is owned (if it hasn't been sold) by Scott Robbins who used to work at Ten Tec.  An ad in this month's CQ says they have parts and repair service for older bugs.  http://www.vibroplex.com

Oh sorry I just read that you already contacted them.  How about that--Mine is a square weight bug.  I wonder what is different about the parts for them.  Well, I have a Bencher and a Radio Adventures Codeboy keyer, but I'd like to get the bug back in action for the swing.  You may just have to go bug shopping again at fests.  Buy one or two more old ones and maybe you'll have the parts for a single good one.  I think mine was probably no more than ten dollars at the Peoria hamfest in 1972.  Now that I think about it, I'll bet it was less than that.

[k4kyv]

My first bug was a Lionel J-36, with the flat pendulum and square weights.  The thing was terrible with contact bounce, and I actually had to file down the pendulum spring to slow it down below about 30 wpm, even with extra weights. I tried damping the little spring on the dit contact with rubber to reduce the bounce, with little success.

Later, I picked up a 1947 vintage Vibroplex Original. It worked better than the J-36, but it also had excessive contact bounce making the dits sound mushy. I was planning build one of those digital "bounce eliminators" described in the early 1980s handbook, but when I acquired the 1920s Vibroplex and found that it was virtually bounce-free, I restored it instead of fooling with the electronic bounce suppressor.

Since I cathode-key a lot of current, about 40 ma on the homebrew rigs and over 200 ma on the Gates, I use a  solid state cathode keying relay between the bug and the  cathode circuit, built with a couple of smaller transistors that trigger a TV sweep transistor.  That way, the key itself has to handle only a few milliamps at less than 12 volts, preserving the bug's contacts, and the little Curtis electronic keyer chip is enough to activate it directly. I never could achieve any shaping of the keyed waveform with the transistor gadget, so I use an outboard key click filter in each transmitter, made up of a small choke, a resistor and a capacitor. I built each one by trial-and-error until I got the keying characteristic I wanted.

My sidetone oscillator crapped out, so now I tune in my signal on the R-1000 without an antenna to monitor keying.  It's a PITA that I tolerate until I get round one of these days to repairing the sidetone oscillator or building a new one.

I have played with a few of the new Vibroplex bugs on display at hamfests, but they don't impress me much. I don't find them much different from my 1947 edition, which has a stiff feel along with the contact bounce.

[W3GMS]

Don,

Try a FET to do your keying wave shaping with.  With the high impedance gate structure, it is very easy to control the rise and fall time characteristics.  With a couple of steering diodes, you can actually have separate controls for both rise time and fall time of the keyed waveform. 

Joe, W3GMS

[K5UJ]

Taking a break from working to get back on the air...I've been learning about the vintage world of commercial radiotelegraph in the maritime communications business, off and on during the past several weeks.   I had previously known nothing about it, or very little at least, but in the golden age of commercial radiotelegraph in the U.S., there were many high powered shore stations up and down the East and West coasts and on the Gulf.  Typically a station consisted of a remotely controlled tx site running a few tens of kilowatts and around 20 miles away, a rx site which was the location staffed by operators.  There is a maritime radio historical society with a website that's very interesting.  These ops were 1st class cw ops, the types who could copy any fist on a mill and to my surprise, the key of choice right up to the end in the 1990s was a bug, usually or always a Vibroplex.  Receivers were usually AR-88s, and 51J-4s.  I'll try to upload a photo of a typical operating position.   The operator is Les Burger at KPH Point Reyes, Calif.  These guys all held 1st Class Radiotelegraph tickets.  You can easily blow a few hours looking around at http://www.radiomarine.org

I had to use a bug in my CW days (I like to say I operate AM and CW but to be honest, I now operate CW so infrequently that's more or less a lie) because the T-60 keying v. was around 90 v.  I was so dumb back then I tried keying it with a cmos keyer and of course, instantly fried it.   I noted the professional CW operators preferred monitoring off the air with a rx instead of a sidetone--maybe because the tx was so far away they wanted to always be aware of its status.  

p.s. in the photo, note the cable clamp U bolt on the bug pendulum as an extra weight.  Nice idea!

[k4kyv]

Don,

Try a FET to do your keying wave shaping with.  With the high impedance gate structure, it is very easy to control the rise and fall time characteristics.  With a couple of steering diodes, you can actually have separate controls for both rise time and fall time of the keyed waveform. 

What's the point?  What I have now works fine; if it ain't broke, don't fix it.  Have been using it for many years.  The TV sweep transistor is rated for over 1500v, and at several amps, so it should be crap-out proof.  The low level transistor circuit that drives it is supposed to provide control of the shaping characteristics, but about all it does is turn the big transistor on and off, just like a mechanical relay, regardless of settings.  So I just added a conventional old-buzzard style R-L-C key-click filter to the cathode circuit in each transmitter and  custom fiddled with component values until I got it right.  I doubt the same settings would work with all the transmitters anyway, since the keyed voltages and currents in the transmitters are vastly different. Besides, a straight key without the electronic keying circuit would work in each transmitter without further adjustment.

Since all stages in the transmitter are class-C, the keying is pretty much 100%on/100%off anyway.  I'm actually surprised the click filter works at all, since a class-C driver stage is cathode keyed, which then excites the class-C final, and both stages normally run at saturation.