[Elecraft] This old dog has a new trick(Ellecraft)

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

By all means do so Don! (Or are you such an "old dog" you go by DM like the
commercial ops?) 

Years ago I used to work a "on-air" buddy who had been a maritime R.O.
regularly. I was using paddles and he had his bug, and he kidded me
mercilessly about my "sterile, machine code". Finally he got to me, and I
drug out my old bug I had purchased in the 1950's. It took me weeks and
weeks of practice to send good CW with it. I had forgotten how to do proper
spacing since the keyer did it for me. 

Some months later my buddy disappeared from the airwaves. We didn't keep a
regular schedule, but ran into each other at least once a week for a bit of
a rag chew. Several months passed and I was about to look up his address and
drop him a snail mail when suddenly there he was one day, calling me. Only
this time he sounded quite different. His fist had always been excellent,
but this was machine perfect. 

He told me he had suffered a stroke and had lost the fine motor control of
his hands needed to operate his bug. He apologized for having purchased a
keyboard so he could join us on CW once again. 

I told him I was just glad to hear him back on the air, no matter what he
was using. By then I was the one keeping a bug alive on the ham bands. 

And I decided to keep using my bug as long as I am blessed with the physical
ability to use it properly. If the day comes when I can't send with a manual
key any longer I'll switch to something else and be glad I can.

Enjoy your K2!! 

Ron AC7AC



-----Original Message-----
From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Donald R. McGregor
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2006 4:17 PM
To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [Elecraft] This old dog has a new trick(Ellecraft)


I'm 81 and have the shakes in both hands and I just finished K2 Ser. # 
5745.  It's on the air but with the shakes I have not been able to send 
CW for along time now.  Maybe this will inspire me to get a keyboard.  I 
am very impressed with the rig.