This old dog has a new trick(Ellecraft)

[Donald R. McGregor]

I'm 81 and have the shakes in both hands and I just finished K2 Ser. #
5745.  It's on the air but with the shakes I have not been able to send
CW for along time now.  Maybe this will inspire me to get a keyboard.  I
am very impressed with the rig.
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[Ron D'Eau Claire-2]

By all means do so Don! (Or are you such an "old dog" you go by DM like the
commercial ops?)

Years ago I used to work a "on-air" buddy who had been a maritime R.O.
regularly. I was using paddles and he had his bug, and he kidded me
mercilessly about my "sterile, machine code". Finally he got to me, and I
drug out my old bug I had purchased in the 1950's. It took me weeks and
weeks of practice to send good CW with it. I had forgotten how to do proper
spacing since the keyer did it for me.

Some months later my buddy disappeared from the airwaves. We didn't keep a
regular schedule, but ran into each other at least once a week for a bit of
a rag chew. Several months passed and I was about to look up his address and
drop him a snail mail when suddenly there he was one day, calling me. Only
this time he sounded quite different. His fist had always been excellent,
but this was machine perfect.

He told me he had suffered a stroke and had lost the fine motor control of
his hands needed to operate his bug. He apologized for having purchased a
keyboard so he could join us on CW once again.

I told him I was just glad to hear him back on the air, no matter what he
was using. By then I was the one keeping a bug alive on the ham bands.

And I decided to keep using my bug as long as I am blessed with the physical
ability to use it properly. If the day comes when I can't send with a manual
key any longer I'll switch to something else and be glad I can.

Enjoy your K2!!

Ron AC7AC



-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email]
[mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Donald R. McGregor
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2006 4:17 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: [Elecraft] This old dog has a new trick(Ellecraft)


I'm 81 and have the shakes in both hands and I just finished K2 Ser. #
5745.  It's on the air but with the shakes I have not been able to send
CW for along time now.  Maybe this will inspire me to get a keyboard.  I
am very impressed with the rig.

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[Darwin, Keith]

Completing the K2 and getting it working is no small task.  Doing it
with shaky hands is an even bigger accomplishment.  Congratulations!

As to sending CW, would it be possible to send with a straight key using
European style?  I'd think a straight key with medium tension and medium
spacing would be rather immune to false "triggering" and may allow you
to send using the larger muscles of the arm.

73!

- Keith N1AS -
- K2 5411.ssb.100 -

-----Original Message-----
From: Donald R. McGregor

I'm 81 and have the shakes in both hands and I just finished K2 Ser. #
5745.  It's on the air but with the shakes I have not been able to send
CW for along time now.  Maybe this will inspire me to get a keyboard.  I
am very impressed with the rig.
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[DaveL G3TJP]

I know the feeling, Don.  As an ex radio op, it's very frustrating to have
difficulty controlling the key.  I can, with effort, produce reasonable CW
on a straight key at about 20wpm but it's become a strain.  I used to use a
mechanical bug quite happily at decent cruising speeds, but these days with
finger joints that lock up without warning, my CW from bug or paddle is not
something to inflict on the rest of the world HI!.

I didn't want software to do my receiving (at least the ears and brain still
work well enough to cope with that) but wanted a keyboard  (which I find
fairly forgiving of my finger lockups) to generate the code.

I've built an Alspaugh keyboard and am very pleased with it.  No noisy
computer anywhere near the rig, just a computer keyboard and a small PCB,
see here.

http://www.mtechnologies.com/alspaugh/

(Milestone's Marshall Emm was most helpful, too.  A real "good guy".)

Like Elecraft's mini-modules, it's not been designed with DIY casing in
mind, but after some critical surgery, it's in a neat box and now works very
well indeed after hanging a load of filter toroids on the lead from the
keyboard, as RF in the shack drove it crazy.  I've painted out the unused
keys on my keyboard with modellers' enamel paint and have added the special
symbols, AR, BK, SK etc. using rub-down lettering, before applying several
sealing coats of transparent enamel gloss.

The PCB quality is sound, but not in the same class as those from Elecraft,
so don't "overcook" any of the pads while soldering.

HTH.  Vy 73 (& Season's Greetings to all Elecrafters too! )

Dave L  G3TJP

Quote:

From: [hidden email]
[mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Donald R. McGregor
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2006 4:17 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: [Elecraft] This old dog has a new trick(Ellecraft)


I'm 81 and have the shakes in both hands and I just finished K2 Ser. #
5745.  It's on the air but with the shakes I have not been able to send
CW for along time now.  Maybe this will inspire me to get a keyboard.  I
am very impressed with the rig.


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