Sunday, October 22, 2017

Vibroplex Vibrokeyer

Get it right the first time

The electronic keyer, for sending Morse code, came into into use in the late 1950's and early 1960's.  Vibroplex introduced their first paddle key, the Vibrokeyer, in 1960. 

1960 Vibroplex Vibrokeyer

The Vibrokeyer key looks like a stunted Vibroplex Bug.   Vibroplex took the frame, pivot and lever mechanism straight from the Bug and simply did away with the sprung pendulum.  After all, why wouldn't they?  The Vibroplex Bug had been one of the best selling keys for sending Code for decades, and its design had barely changed since 1947.  Vibroplex had a winner with the Bug.  

But did that same design translate well to a key for use with an electronic keyer?


Vibrokeyer next to a Bug

The roots of the design

Vibroplex carried over the roots of their design principles, and two things stand out that make them different from other modern day keys designed for use with an electronic keyer...  The finger-pieces and the non-symmetrical, left-right movement.


The ergonomic finger-piece

The tip of our thumb obviously does not reach as far as our index finger without contorting your hand, so why do most key manufacturers make finger-pieces that assumes your thumb reach is equal to your other fingers?   

The Vibroplex finger-piece takes the shorter thumb into account by allowing the thumb to contact nearer the hand than the index finger.  It just makes sense, right?

Non-symmetrical lever operation

The split, and unequal length design of the lever requires different forces from the DIT and the DAH side.  Again, this is a carry over from the Bug, but it makes ergonomic sense.  We employ more force from our thumb than our index finger when moving the paddle lever.  It's simply the natural mechanics in the hand when it's in that position.  So, the Vibrokeyer not only provides different spring pressure adjustments, but also makes the mechanics of the DIT side different from the DAH.  

I don't know whether this was intentional or just making use of their existing Bug design, but in my opinion, the result makes the Vibrokeyer a better paddle with regard to the dynamics of our hand movements than keys with a symmetrical design.  Our thumb and forefinger do not move symmetrically.  The force and stroke length of the unequal lengths of the Vibrokeyer lever compliment our non-symmetric design.  Maybe it's my imagination, because other keys allow for independent tension and distance adjustment but the Vibrokeyer just feels different.  It feels more natural.


Non-symmetric split lever design

What's not to like?

The Vibrokeyer seems to check all the boxes, and patents have long since expired. So, why don't other modern keys copy this design?  For one thing it's a single lever paddle... In the 1970s IAMBIC keyer circuitry became popular, sparking the surge of dual-lever paddles that took advantage of squeeze keying.  Single lever paddles seemed to fall from grace for all but the QRQ crowd.

I own a work of art, dual-paddle key, from N3ZN that I enjoy using.  But I admit that even with the N3ZN key on my desk, right next to my Bug, I would frequently choose the Bug.  Part of it was the challenge and the anachronistic nature of the Bug, but now with the Vibrokeyer I find that the finger-piece and split bar design just seems to feel more natural and comfortable for my hand than a traditional dual paddle, symmetric design.


When Vibroplex created their first paddle-key, I think they got it right the first time


Vibroplex Vibrokeyer video


That's all for now

So lower your power and raise your expectations...

72/73
Richard, AA4OO

Friday, October 13, 2017

Vibroplex Bug Vari-Speed

How Slow Can You Go ?

My friend Kurt (N4KJK) has loaned me his Vibroplex Original Deluxe Bug.

Shiny, Indeed!

Vibroplex Original Deluxe Bug with Vari-Speed 
I've enjoyed my used Vibroplex Standard Bug made in the 1970's.  That bug has really grown on me and it's now my preferred key for casual operation.  But when I want to work operators who prefer speeds below 20wpm I either have to add a pile of magnets onto my already non-standard pendulum weight or switch to the straight key.

Vari-Speed to the rescue


The Vari-Speed, sold by Vibroplex, gives the bug an enhanced range down from its high-speed at 30+ WPM down to about 13 WPM.



The Vari-Speed accessory is affixed to the pendulum arm, near the middle, and moves the weight up onto the rotating arm of the Vari-Speed.  To change speed, instead of moving the weight along the pendulum, the Vari-Speed arm carrying the re-located weight is pivoted toward front or back of the key.  The added weight of the Vari-Speed attachment coupled with the ability to move the weight further to the rear is what allows the DIT speed to drop all the way down to 13 WPM.

Other options exist to slow down a bug this much but they usually involve extending the weight behind the bug through extension of the pendulum tube.  I don't have room at my desk for that option, and additionally, the pendulum extensions don't allow for the bug to be returned to a QRQ speed without quite a bit of effort.

How does it perform?

In practice the Vari-Speed does its job.  It allows the DIT speed to be slowed down a ton compared to other options that don't extend the pendulum arm.  

However, there are some drawbacks...  Changing speed now becomes a two handed operation.  You can't loosen the nut holding the Vari-Speed arm and move it to a new position single-handedly (or at least I couldn't) so it requires reaching over the bug and using one hand to loosen-tighten the set screw while the other hand moves the Vari-Speed back and forth.  This is a bit awkward and much slower that simply gripping the standard configured weight on a bug and sliding it forward or backward on the pendulum with one hand from the side.

The second issue, is the amount of mass added to the pendulum. It is considerable, even when the Vari-Speed is not being used to slow down DITS it makes operation feel quite different than a standard bug.  I found that my inter-character timing suffered due to the extra mass and getting the DIT arm moving for initial DIT elements of a character.   Admittedly, I've spent very little time with the Vari-Speed so I'm sure I would adapt, but I've had the opportunity to try about 6 different bugs at this point and none of them felt this strange for initiating the DITs.

Following is a video demonstrating the Vari-Speed.



That's all for now...

So lower your power and raise your expectations

72/73  de AA4OO
http://hamradioqrp.com

Tuesday, October 10, 2017

CW tone comparison C21 to KX3

The old ways are sometimes best

This is a short one.  I haven't found much time lately to enjoy the hobby, but the past few evenings I've been firing up the old Ten-Tec Century/21 and just listening to CW while I tend to other duties.   Tonight, I managed to find time before dinner to have a brief ragchew with fellow SKCC member WV8DH (Dave in West Virginia) using my old rig.  It reminded me how much I enjoy the sound of CW coming out of that radio.



I was too lazy to set the camera up to capture the QSO, but after the QSO I dropped down the band to find a good ragchew going on and grabbed my smartphone and shot a quick comparison of the CW tone presented by the 40 year old TenTec radio and my new, modern, Elecraft KX3. 

After listening to the video I realize that a lot of wonderful sound, including harmonics are not captured by the microphone on the phone and can't be heard in the video.  Nonetheless, I think you'll agree that the older rig has finer CW audio. It's certainly more pleasant to listen to for long stretches.  The KX3 audio still wears me out if I operate more than an hour.  I wrote a detailed post comparing the KX3 to the Ten-Tec Eagle last year that pointed out what I believe the culprit of the tainted audio on the KX3.  The Eagle is presently off the desk and if anything the older Ten-Tec Century/21 sounds even better than the newer Ten-Tec Eagle.

But here's the brief, badly made smartphone video comparison of the C21 and the KX3...

Comparing CW tone from TenTec C21 to a modern Elecraft KX3

That's all for now.  I'm going to be reviewing a nice bug that a friend has loaned me soon.

That's all for now...

So lower your power and raise your expectations

72/73 Richard  AA4OO

Saturday, September 9, 2017

Been busy lately?

How much are you operating?

So are you working on your CW skills? How much are you on-the-air? Are you a casual operator or are you a CW-aholic?



There's a tool to help you track your on-air activity


The RBN (reverse beacon network) is a collection of reporting stations that run CW-Skimmers and report what they hear to the RBN network.  It is a very useful tool to see where your signal is going and how strong you're being heard.

The RBN stores a lot of data and makes it freely available.  One industrious amateur operator  Fabian Kurz, DJ1YFK operates a website that presents all manner of useful historical information based on RBN data.

By entering your callsign in the URL or using the entry box on the page you can see your activity by day with a "heat map" look.  Darker green means it heard your call more times that day.  You can inspect any individual day to see what bands you were operating and also when.
RBN activity tracker https://foc.dj1yfk.de/activity/W1AW

You can also use it to view other amateurs activity and determine what times of day and bands they prefer to operate on.


That will show you activity for W1AW but enter your own call-sign to see your information.   Now keep in mind that RBN only tracks you when you call CQ so if you operate mainly search and pounce (i.e. only answer others calls) you won't see a fair representation of your activity.

That's all for now...

So lower your power and raise your expectations

72/73
Richard AA4OO

Saturday, July 29, 2017

Sticker Shock

CW keys cost too much, or do they?

I read various forums and blogs for the same reason you might be reading this one.  I'm always interested in learning more or trying to answer someone's question in a forum, etc. etc.

A recent forum post went something like... 
"CW straight key prices are so obscenely inflated that I lost interest in learning CW..."

I'll admit that I've been shocked at the prices of some CW keys but to say that because some CW straight key prices are high that would make me lose interest in learning seems a bit non-sequitur.  I'm not going to debate the logic/illogic of not learning CW due to the high cost of straight keys but I would like to explore the current cost of straight keys.  So are CW keys really that expensive?  Let's have a look...

Morse Express offers a good selection of keys and I've had good experience purchasing from them.  At the time of this writing they offer an AMECO straight key for $12.50, the Hi-Mound model 705 for $50 and a Nye Viking Speed-X for $85.  Prices can certainly go up from there... A Begali Spark (available from Begali) is approximately $150 and more custom keys and materials can go up and up and up.

There may be less expensive new straight keys than the AMECO $12.50 model but let's start there.

So from a 1958 radio shack advertisement we see:

1958 Radio Shack ad


The 99 cent "Skillman 'jr' Speed Key" appears to be equivalent to the AMECO AM-K1 advertised at MorseX site.  What is 99c in today's money... about $8.50  So yes by that measure the absolute cheapest key you could buy from Radio shack in 1958 would cost only 75% of what you'd pay today.   What about the next model up, the "Deluxe High Speed Brass Key" is probably equivalent to a Nye Viking Speed-X.  So $2.95 versus $85... Hmmm inflation says the Nye Viking should cost $25 based on that comparison.  Maybe the Speed-X is better made than the 1958 Radio Shack "Deluxe High Speed Brass Key" but probably not 3-4 times better.

My goodness, straight key manufacturers are gouging us aren't they?

So it would seem straight key prices are significantly higher now than in the 1950s  Why is that?

Could it be the cost of manufacturing... 
As quantity of production increases from Q to Q2, the average cost of each unit decreases from C to C1. LRAC is the long run average cost (Source Wikipedia)

There was a far higher demand for keys in the past than at present


So according to this 1958 FCC Report there were 180,738 licensed amateur radio operators in the USA in 1958.  ALL of those operators were required to both learn morse code and were originally restricted to only operate CW until a license upgrade occurred.  Even after that I'd argue (and I'd like to hear from operators from that era) that CW continued to be a far more common mode of communication for hams than phone modes at the time.  

So guess what?  All these operators were purchasing morse code keys.  I don't think the electronic keyer had come into common use at the time so they would be buying straight keys or bugs of some type (not discounting cooties but hey let's admit using a cootie takes a special kind of strange).

Fast forward to the PRESENT:  
  • Morse code is not required to obtain a FCC amateur radio license.
  • There are ~744000 licensed hams but ~373000 are Technician class; so although they might be exercising CW in their limited band portions I think we'd all agree that's highly unlikely.  So that leaves us with 371,000 operators that could be operating CW.  Seems like a big number.
  • My personal anecdotal experience from visiting local Amateur radio clubs tells me that less than 1 in 20 licenced operators regularly use CW and of those the majority use electronic keyers with paddles or operate with a keyboard, rather than using a mechanical key.
  • The SKCC is a club/association for straight key and mechanical key operators.  From what I can tell it is the most popular CW related club at present.  As of this writing it has 17385 members.  Since all these members are using mechanical keys that's a good gauge of active straight key operators at present.

Current market for straight keys

Ok making a semi-sketchy educated guess out of this combination of my assumption filled math moderated by anecdotal experience and one actual real number; I'm guessing there are 18,000 active mechanical key operators at present in 2017 compared to 180,738 in 1958 (not taking into account other potential buyers straight keys outside of amateur radio).

There is likely less than 10% of the 1958 market for straight keys now.  Add to this that's it's likely easier to obtain a used key today from an auction or ham swap sites that further dilutes sales potential of new straight keys.

So with greater than 90% market erosion we look back up at the cost of manufacturing chart and see why straight keys cost so much now compared to when you were an aspiring novice back in the 1950s.

What is a CW key worth?

I've mentioned this in other articles but
Of every item in your shack, what are you going to actually touch as much as your CW key?  
You will physically interact more with you CW key than any piece of equipment you own.  It's kinda like comfortable shoes.  Sure you can buy a pair of $10 flip flops or you could have $3,000 custom made Italian shoes.  Somewhere in between lies something that's both functional, comfortable and durable.  

The same is true for CW keys.  You could buy the $12.50 AMECO plastic key or a $540 Begali sideswiper.  Both work, but what you can be happy with likely lies somewhere in-between.  Folks will happily spend big bucks for a ham radio microphone to achieve that "full fidelity sound" (in ahem 2.8kHz bandwidth) but they balk at spending over $100 for a CW key.  

Seems to me that keys aren't getting the love they deserve.

So before you decide that you won't learn CW until the price of Morse Code Straight Keys comes down from today's obscene prices, consider what it is you're actually buying and why they just might cost more today than when you were a lad and all automobiles had to be hand cranked.


That's all for now...

So lower your power and raise your expectations.

72/73
Richard, AA4OO

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

QRPP QSO with QRM

Hard fought QSO with the 1Watter

I haven't used the 1Watter in a while so I thought I'd pull it off the shelf and hook it up for a QSO.  The 40m band was in pretty good shape but the frequencies covered by my XTAL controlled 1Watter are pretty limited and trying to find an open frequency was tough.


I received a response to my call from N1WHT up in CT, but the station was a little off frequency and the 1Watter doesn't have a RIT so I had to change frequency to bring him into my passband. Then another much stronger station came in right beside us which overwhelmed the 1Watter AGC when I sent my final response.  I've tried a number of things to correct the AGC issue on my radio and haven't had success.  I've just learned to deal with having the audio from my sidetone drop out when sending in such circumstances.

This was a rather hard fought QSO.  I used my Elecraft AF-1 audio filter kit to help eliminate the stronger station on receive but the passband was so narrow that I had to turn it off to hear some of my sidetone when sending.

So I made a contact but it wasn't the most elegant or pleasant QSO of the evening.  In any event, it's communication so soldier on.

Here's a video of the QRPP adventure...



That's all for now

So lower your power and raise your expectations

72/73
Richard AA4OO


Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Space, the final frontier in CW

Give your CW a "break"

I was listening to CW stations tonight through my SDR having extended QSOs on 40m between 7015 and 7035.  There seemed to be a good number of stations sending between 24 wpm and 28 wpm, maybe a bit faster. The signals were strong and I had good signal to noise on most of the conversations.  24-28wpm is generally faster than I'm able to comfortably copy but I use these listening sessions to improve my head copy skills.

As I listened I realized that I could copy some stations nearly 100% while with others sending at about the same speed I just could not head copy no matter how hard I concentrated.  One particular QSO had two stations operating at the same speed and about the same SNR.  I'd guess they were operating about 25wpm.  One of the stations I copied easily without thinking much about it while the other I just caught a word here or there.  The difference was their space between words.  Not necessarily space between characters but between the words.  I started paying closer attention to the station I could copy clearly and I could count about a one second pause between each of his words.  The other station was running one word into the next.

Then I started switching back and forth between a number of QSOs and I recognized that my comprehension was very dependent on word spacing.  I could even copy bug operators who had their DITS flying over 30wpm with 20wpm spaces clearly as long as they paused between words.

Silence is golden


The artist Sting is a famous bass player.  I am also a bass player, certainly not a famous one, but I follow bass players and enjoy their different styles.  

In an interview in 2000 Sting said:
For me, the sound is only half of music - the space between the notes is also vitally important... 
Is space the final frontier in being able to copy CW?  Why is it that some CW operators, and I'll venture to say most CW operators don't put adequate space between their words.  CW is not a fast mode of communication so why not give each word the importance it deserves?  Why be in a rush?

I'm going to strive to put more space between my words in my next QSOs.  It may just make copy for the other operator a bit easier and rather than them bailing on you after an exchange or two you may just chat away for an hour because they enjoy the solid comprehension of every word you send.  If you work me and don't hear me putting an adequate pause between my words, call me out on it.



That's all for now

So lower your power, and    pause   before   your   next   word,  then raise your expectations

72/73
Richard AA4OO

http://hamradioqrp.com