[HBQRP] Parts Link and a Story..

[Dale Notkin, N0XAS]

Gang,

> So our local Kit supplier, Dale N0XAS (Hamgadgets.com) is standing at
> his booth in Dayton and two strangers come up to look at the really
> fancy keyer he had at our last get together. They are impressed with
> this gadget (well, go figure). Next thing he knows, they introduce them
> selves as the folks who make the Begali keys and Paddles.  They are so
> impressed, one of them goes to their booth and returns with the Limited
> edition "Sculpture" paddle (worth about $500) and tell Dale he can use
> it to demo his keyer for the show if they can use one of his keyers' to
> demo their paddles.

ALMOST correct.  Peitro (Mr. Begali) did bring a new Sculpture paddle with
the gold titanium finish by for us to use for our demo setup.  And it's
wonderful.

They didn't ask for a MasterKeyer to demo their paddles, and rightly so. 
You really need a few minutes to learn how to use the MasterKeyer before
punching buttons, as we all do.  Constantly.  But there's a flip side to
this story.

So this morning, Pietro Begali shows up at my booth again.  He's got a
little iPod docking station/speaker thingy he needs me to look at.  After
overcoming the language thing, he explains that he's gutted the thing and
installed two PicoKeyers, and wants one set for iambic A mode, and the
other for iambic B.  He has another setup built into an old boat anchor
cabinet of some sort, running from battery power, wants it set up the same
way.  He explains that he actually has *several* PicoKeyers at his shop,
that his workers use when testing paddles and keys!  I got a chuckle out
of that news.

> Like Duh!! Of course he said yes.,  Wonderful.

THAT part is absolutely correct!  The Begali paddle is everything it's
said to be.  Heavy, exquisite quality, a beautiful piece of art as well as
an impressive Morse instrument.  Even my wife thinks it's beautiful.

> Nice story, pictures when Dale returns..

Or, you can see a couple here...

http://www.hamgadgets.com/blog/

73/72,
Dale - N0XAS
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It's a thankless job, but I've got a lot of karma to burn off.