[CW] Bug Sending Flourishing Fingers or Rolling Forearm?

[Roadrunner via CW]

Splendid Don. Let me hear you on CW soon. I have a 1922 Original that needs a little work, but my Blue Racer sends fine!!

Best regards - Brian Carling
AF4K Crystals Co.
117 Sterling Pine St.
Sanford, FL 32773

Tel: +USA 321-262-5471




> On Mar 28, 2015, at 9:34 PM, Donald Chester via CW <cw at mailman.qth.net> wrote:
> 
> On my circa 1925 Vibroplex Original, the damper wheel Is unrestrained but it
> doesn't always turn.  In fact, there is a  slight groove worn in one spot on
> the side of the wheel where it was evidently used for many years with the
> wheel stuck and not turning at all.  I tried to carefully smooth out the
> groove with a file and emery cloth, but that didn't help much.  I
> occasionally re-position the wheel by hand when it appears to be stalled and
> not turning, but the lack of turning doesn't  seem to hamper the damping
> function; I just don't want to keep on wearing the groove any deeper. When I
> acquired it at a hamfest, it was a real basket  case and required a great
> deal of careful restoration.  I  suspect it had seen many, many years of
> heavy use and abuse in landline service, probably at a railway station given
> the heavy layer of black sooty crud that was caked all over it.  There is a
> lot of mechanical slop in the moving parts probably due to excessive wear,
> but it still sends beautifully, velvet smooth, clean dits, far better than
> my 1947 Original or my Lionel J-36, both of which are stiff and full of
> contact bounce. I enjoy using it so much that my iambic keyer has for years
> collected dust on the shelf.
> 
> I make the final adjustment to my dit contacts by firing up my transmitter
> which has a class-C final, taking a plate or grid current reading with the
> switch closed or holding the dah contacts down, and then send a string of
> high speed dits and adjust  the contact spacing until the plate or grid
> current meter reads just slightly less than half the current that it read
> with the switch closed.  This works on the same principle as an old
> fashioned automotive dwell meter for adjusting mechanical ignition points.
> Another method  that works well is to use a good quality analogue ohmmeter
> like a Simpson 260. Set the ohms adjustment to read exactly full meter scale
> with the contacts touching, then send dits and adjust the spacing  until the
> meter reads just slightly  less than mid-scale.  By mid-scale, I mean with
> the pointer straight up vertical, halfway between zero and full scale, NOT
> half the reading on the ohms scale. 
> 
> I don't exactly rotate my forearm when sending; I tend to rest my wrist on
> the table with my forearm hanging over the edge, and rotate my wrist to
> send.  I sometimes rest my elbow on the pull-out thingy over the top desk
> drawer. If I am using an armchair, I may rest my elbow on the chair arm, but
> my normal operating chair doesn't have an arm. The idea is to  rest the arm
> at two points, the wrist and elbow, with the wrist rest elevated an inch or
> two higher than the elbow rest.
> 
> Don k4kyv
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> Here is a closeup of bug setup looking at the damper adjustment - "just so
> it touches the wheel on the damper - and the damper wheel is unrestrained so
> that it moves!".
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpAuWL7vnMI
> 
> I always asked the best operators I ever heard for advice and I was told I
> could send faster, longer, and clearer by rotating the forearm to send.  I
> have found this to be true.
> 
> David N1EA
> 
> 
> ---
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> =30=