K1 Keyer Problem

[Ken Wezeman]

My K1 has started having a mind of its own.  (It used to work just
fine.  It is serial no. 1514 and has NEVER had a problem before.)  I
started calling the other day and all of a sudden it sent  a dah when it
finished sending a dit.  I checked it out a bit and noticed that
occasionally it sent a dah when it hit the dit paddle also.  I don't see
how it could be RF getting in.  I cranked it down to 100 milliwatts and
ran it into a good dummy load and the problem did not change.  And it
was no worse at 5 watts.  Bypass caps on the key line didn't help.

Any ideas?

Ken Wezeman, N9QIL


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[Don Wilhelm-4]

Ken,

Are your paddle contacts clean?  Put a strip of paper between the
contacts - close the contacts and slide the paper out.  Not only will
dirt stick to the paper, but the paper does a bit of gentle contact
burnishing.

73,
Don W3FPR

On 2/25/2012 4:36 PM, Ken Wezeman wrote:
> My K1 has started having a mind of its own.  (It used to work just
> fine.  It is serial no. 1514 and has NEVER had a problem before.)  I
> started calling the other day and all of a sudden it sent  a dah when it
> finished sending a dit.  I checked it out a bit and noticed that
> occasionally it sent a dah when it hit the dit paddle also.  I don't see
> how it could be RF getting in.  I cranked it down to 100 milliwatts and
> ran it into a good dummy load and the problem did not change.  And it
> was no worse at 5 watts.  Bypass caps on the key line didn't help.
>
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[Mike Morrow-3]

Ken wrote:
> ...all of a sudden it sent a dah when it finished sending a dit.

Ron wrote:
> Perhaps you inadvertently changed the keyer mode in the Menu.  See 'Keyer
> Setup' in your Owner's manual.

In this respect, the iambic mode most likely to exhibit this behavior
is iambic mode B, which when sending an iambic string dit-dah-dit-dah-etc.
an extra dit will be sent if the paddles are released during a dah, or
an extra dah will be sent if the paddles are released during a dit.  When
iambic mode A is selected, if the paddles are released during a dah only
that dah is completed and keying stops.  If the paddles are released
during a dit only that dit is completed and keying stops.

Why anyone would choose mode B, with its much more critical paddle timing
requirements compared to mode A, has never had an intelligent answer that
I've seen in 44 years as a Morse-using ham.  It's a system that many seem
to like for which no one is able to cite any advantage (except that most
incompetently- and carelessly-designed Asian-source rigs with iambic
keying allow *only* mode B).  Go figure!  :-)

There's no guarantee that being in mode B is your problem, of course.

73,
Mike / KK5F
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