[CW] Iambic contact gap settings

[Ken Lotts]

My Bencher accidentally fell off the table and sustained some serious
damage. I had been using the Bencher for something like eighteen years and I
was very comfortable and happy with it so I was just going replace it with a
used Bencher off Ebay but then I started to research (on eham.net) to see
what else was out there. The Schurr Profi 2 looked like a winner so I placed
an order with Morse Express (www.mtechnologies.com) and it arrived in only a
few days.

I noticed with amazement that the factory default contact gap settings were
huge.  I have been playing around with those huge (greater than 1/16 inch)
gaps on my profi to see if I could operate like that and I can...  in fact
when I set them to what I would consider to be reasonably close, my
operating does not improve.. I have always thought that in order to send
good, the contacts had to be very close..  but now I am wondering how many
old timers set their contacts (on their iambic paddles) out a ways..  As a
side note, I suspect the overall paddle design might have a lot to do with
how far the gap setting might end up at because of lever action (paddle arm
travel).

de

Ken Lotts AA7JC
Sierra Vista, AZ