[CW] K6KPH Code

[David Ring]

Your lucky.  I tried to readjust my dot spring on my Blue Racer 2000
and it broke.  I've never seen or had a broken dot spring.  I'm hoping
it was just ONE bad spring and not a bunch.  The key lacked springy
kick.

Do you live hear salt water?  I do and I find that I have to clean
contacts monthly - sometimes twice a month.

RadioShack sells a dual De-Oxit kit - cleaner and preservative for
about $17 - I'd clean it with silver polish, polish with the chamois
cloth you have, and then clean it with De-Oxit Cleaner, let dry (only
30 seconds will do it) and then put the contact preservative on.  The
preservative works very well - I'm testing it now - one key hasn't
needed to be cleaned for six months now when I used it.  The other
keys get tarnished.

I also have found that FLITZ has some compound in it which is an
amazing anti-tarnishing agent.  I mirror polished some brass a year
ago - it is still bring golden color of "just polished" brass - no
tarnish at all.

Both these products aren't cheap and Flitz is sometimes difficult to
find, but it is worth looking for.  Simachrome, Maas and others are a
poor second to the Flitz.

73

David N1EA


On Dec 17, 2007 12:29 PM, David Curry <kb8tt at ncweb.com> wrote:
 A few months ago I got a new
> Blue Racer, which is a really great looking instrument. But, after a
> short while I found this thoroughbred to be a little bit
> temperamental. It was difficult to keep in adjustment, unlike my old
> Champion (which I had reassembled for left hand use). After weeks of
> playing around with it, I pretty much determined that regular
> cleaning of contacts (a couple of times a week) seemed to solve the
> problem. This seems like a lot of cleaning compared with the
> Champion, but it has solved the problem.