[OFARC] home made keyer cable

Fri Jul 24 22:47:47 EDT 2020

Here’s a photo of mine, a rather expensive vibroplex with homemade cable.  As Stephen suggested, I used an old power cord I recovered from the something and stashed in my junk box.  It’s a very flexible 3 conductor cable, rubber insulation on the wires, 18 gauge I think.  I attached a ¼ inch plug to it using soldered connections.  This rig is compatible with the IC-7300, plugs in on the back.  The IC-7300 has a built-in keyer and side tone generator and can be used for code practice.  Also attaching some info from K7QO.  His course is a very good one for learning…

There are some nice pictures of paddles in the ”sending” pdf, but it’s quite a large file, that might not fit through the reflector “key hole”.

73,

Barry

From: sc flowers [mailto:ursae47 at gmail.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, July 22, 2020 11:00 AM
To: MLandress; ralph phillips; lcowden58 at comcast.net
Cc: bsb; Donald Burger <burger at burger.com>; halthz1 .
Subject: Re: [OFARC] home made keyer cable

Gents,

I am interested.  I think that the little electronics store about 4 blocks away may have the stereo plug that Ralph mentioned.  The place is a hole in the wall and I was surprised to find out that they carried PL 259 connectors.  I also bought power cable from them, two actually, one AWG 16 and the other AWG 18. I could rig that into the 3 leads.  I will look into the rest of the parts though I'll have to have an open mind as to what could work as a couple of contacts for an Iambic key.

Have a great day and be safe!

73,

Stephen (OA4/W2WF)

On Wed, Jul 22, 2020 at 8:00 AM MLandress via OFARC <ofarc at mailman.qth.net> wrote:

I see the beginnings of a club project.  

From: ralph phillips [mailto:ke5hdf at sbcglobal.net] 
Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2020 11:08 PM
To: lcowden58 at comcast.net; 'OFARC'; MLandress
Subject: Re: [OFARC] home made keyer cable

We all have some unexpected free time, so take advantage of it to learn a new skill, make something, or progress toward some goal that has been on the back burner 

Plus have a little fun!

Get Outlook for Android <https://aka.ms/ghei36> 

On Tue, Jul 21, 2020 at 9:40 PM -0500, "MLandress" <gammamann at aol.com> wrote:

I think Ralph has way too much time on his hands.  Heres my goto keyer.  Plus a Bencher and J38.  

From: ofarc-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:ofarc-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of lcowden58 at comcast.net
Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2020 9:06 PM
To: Ralph; OFARC
Subject: Re: [OFARC] home made keyer cable

Here are my homemade cables. I didn't feel like removing the wires on my paddle so you get to see how I wired it to the Bencher.

The straight key cable is a mono audio cable with crimped rings. Also shown is my U.S. Army Signal Corps J-38 key.

Paddles are much, MUCH easier to learn with.

Lee

NR5Q

On Jul 21, 2020 8:18 PM, Ralph <ke5hdf at sbcglobal.net> wrote:

lets start with a very easy project..... make you own paddle/keyer cable. 

for a straight key, cut 2 pieces of 20ga wire about 30 inches long 

for a paddle, cut 3 pieces 

twist the wires together at each end 

put one end in a vise or other method to secure it 

the other end goes into the chuck of your drill motor 

trigger the drill to SLOWLY turn the wire.  it will make a nice twisted set 

stop when you are happy with the twist. 

get a 1/8 or 1/4 inch plug... depending on your radio. 

for a straight key, use a MONO plug.  it does not matter which wire goes 
to which 

for a paddle, use a STEREO plug.  The common/center blade goes to the 
LONG (common) connection in the plug.  the left contact goes to the tip, 
right contact goes to the ring. 

here is a photo of my new paddle cable 

Ralph,    KE5HDF 

______________________________________________________________ 
OFARC mailing list 
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/ofarc 
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm 
Post: mailto:OFARC at mailman.qth.net 

This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net 
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html 
Message delivered to lcowden58 at comcast.net

______________________________________________________________
OFARC mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/ofarc
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:OFARC at mailman.qth.net

This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
Message delivered to ursae47 at gmail.com

-- 

Regards,

Stephen

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/ofarc/attachments/20200724/93061e14/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: paddle and cable.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 164972 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/ofarc/attachments/20200724/93061e14/attachment-0001.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: manual.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 756436 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/ofarc/attachments/20200724/93061e14/attachment-0002.pdf>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: sending.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 13855279 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/ofarc/attachments/20200724/93061e14/attachment-0003.pdf>