[CW] new Brown Bros. acquisition

[Craig Roberts via CW]

Hello gents,

For far less than the price of a single -- admittedly beautiful -- 
Begali, I have just added three Brown Bros. instruments to my very 
modest collection.

I grew up in St. Louis, so when I got interested in ham radio in the 
early '60s I was naturally intrigued by the key making handiwork of a 
local machinist named Bill Brown.  Sadly, as a penniless teen, I was 
unable to afford a hand made Bill Brown masterpiece.

Well, I recently spotted an eBay offering that renewed my interest in 
Brown Bros. products -- Bill's STL model straight key. I bid on it 
successfully and within a few days had also snagged models BTL and CTL 
paddle and combo straight key & paddle respectively. The CTL combo 
looked pretty rough in the eBay photos, but I took a chance. I was 
delighted to learn that Bill's craftsmanship and finish work have held 
up beautifully for a half century and a thorough cleaning, polishing and 
paint chip touch-up have yielded "like new" results.

By the way, these keys work wonderfully.  The STL is as good as any 
conventional straight key and better than most.  No, it can't match my 
Amplidan for sheer smoothness, but I never expected it would.  As for 
the paddles -- well, I have never used any nicer, and that includes some 
pretty high end works of Italian mechanical art.

'Til our next QSO...

73,

Craig
W3CRR

Brown Bros collection
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