[Elecraft] first keyer

[Doug Smith]

On Mon, 2007-09-10 at 22:22 -0400, AJSOENKE at aol.com wrote:
> Was that the one in the ARRL Handbook around  1958 - 1961?

The keyer described earlier sounded different than the one in the
handbook in that it had a monitor and didn't self complete..

I built the one in the handbook and used if for many years.  It had one
sawtooth generator and it oscillated at different frequencies, one for
dashes and one for dots.  The other half of that 12AU7 was the rectifier
tube.  

The other 12AU7 formed the clipping circuit that clipped the tops off
the sawtooth waves and drove the keying relay.  Actually, half of that
tube clipped the sawtooths the other half set the clipping level --
essentially the keying weight.  There was no monitor circuit or speaker
in that design.  Also it did, as you point out, self complete each dot
or dash.  It was a cool design and I used it in many a Sweepstakes and
CD party.

I also built the 4-400 amp and a 6C4 based TR switch out of the same
issue of the handbook.  It was the 1961 Handbook although I was using it
in 1965 and later.  Man, that was a long time ago..

73,
-Doug, W7KF