[SOC] Nicotine Withdrawal and the Bencher Paddles Incident

[Chip W9EBE]

Having smoked cigarettes regularly since I was around 14 years old, by the time I quickly approached the ripe old age of 30, I decided it was time to quit.  But, what, other than the obvious health reasons, would be my incentive?  Why, putting the money I would have spent on cigarettes toward ham radio gear, of course!

Around that time, Yaesu had just come out with the nifty (and VY FB!) little FT-757GX.  I made my commitment to part ways with my coffin nails and I decided *that* was the rig for me.  I had initially dreamed of owning a Kenwood TS-430S, but it was not as CW friendly as was the Yaesu, so the ‘757 was going to be the brand-spankin’ new rig at (then) WB9EBE’s shack!

It had been a while since I owned my own gear; my (now ex) wife and I were living on a shoestring budget and I had been unable to afford any decent ham radio equipment.  A couple of my sympathetic and generous ham friends had kindly lent me some gear so I could get on the air, and I had managed to keep active, mostly on ‘phone, thanks to them.  But I had reached the point where it was time for me to upgrade to the latest technology and have some gear of my own.  And I seriously wanted to get back to my mode of choice -- CW!  So, I acquired a credit card and decided that the money I had previously spent on cigarettes would go instead to making the payments on the expenditure of radio stuff.  (I’ve never claimed to be a financial genius.)

I went to Erickson Communications in Chicago with my new, empty VISA card and purchased the FT-757GX, along with Bencher BY-1 paddles and logbooks.  Yes, logbooks, plural.  I wanted one logbook for *each* HF band, plus one for SWL’ing.  The salesman at the store raised his eyebrows at checkout and said, “You’re planning on making a lot of contacts, aren’t you?”  Oh yeah.

It didn’t take me long to get home and put the new rig into service.  I quickly began joyfully exploring all of the ‘757’s cool features.  Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy… it was time for some CW with the shiny, new paddles!

But throughout the following week, no matter how hard I tried, I simply could not get the hang of that Bencher BY-1.  I felt sorry for those poor operators who had to listen to my all-too-frequent errors.  I wanted a cigarette!

Contact after contact, nothing but frustration with my paddles.  I wanted a cigarette!!

I reached my breaking point in mid-CQ one afternoon.  I could not, for the life of me, slap out a decent CQ.  I wanted a cigarette!!!  Bad.

My frustration rose to a heretofore unknown level to a point where I almost roared like a provoked, agitated lion.  Instead, I glared at the uncooperative Bencher and, and, with shaking hands (have I mentioned that I wanted a cigarette?) I hastily grabbed the tension spring that attaches to the paddles and yanked it clean off, sending Bencher parts flying up in the air, and back down all over the operating desk.  The tinkling sound of little pieces/parts raining down on the desk’s surface seemed to overcome the background noise of whatever band I had been QRM’ing.

<GASP!> Oh no!  What had I done?

I sat back, took a deep breath, and surveyed the damage I had inflicted on the paddles.  I felt like an idiot.  One end of the spring in my hand was stretched to the point that it looked like a mangled length of thin-gauge wire.  The paddle’s finger pieces resembled a dissected butterfly, lying some distance from the base along with other various parts that once adorned it.

Now I’d done it.  I had ruined those beautiful paddles.  Did I mention that I felt like an idiot?

After many anxious moments of composing myself, I took another deep breath and began to formulate how I could repair the poor dismembered device.  Aha!  I got it!  If I simply cut off the now-straightened portion of the spring, maybe I could put all the parts back together and reconnect the shorter spring so that maybe, just maybe, I could get it to work again!  Reassembly ensued while I listened enviously to some beautiful Morse sent by an accomplished operator.  I managed to put the paddles back together piece by piece, and attached the shorter spring.  “Here goes,” I said to myself.

V V V test V V V  de WB9EBE AR  Much to my delight, the “modified” Bencher paddles actually seemed to work MUCH better with more spring tension provided by the shorter spring!  Eureka!  My once-good ol’ CW fist started to make a comeback!

Following that episode of sheer idiocy, my Bencher and I became the best of friends.  It forgave me for my brutal assault, and for years was my reliable CW companion, not only in the shack, but even mobile and on camping trips.  I still have it, along with another Bencher BY-1 that replaced it when the “modified” one started to rust from having been left in my van beneath a side window that somehow allowed the rain to leak in.

As a matter of fact, I found that the Bencher BY-1 paddles (even un-“modified’) were great for mobile operation, and used them for many years.

A few years ago, this ol’ Vibroplex operator took the venerable Bencher out of the closet to give it some attention.  It had been probably five or six years since I had last used it, and it looked and felt like a dear, old friend.  EXCEPT, I could no longer send well -- at all -- with it.  This time, though, instead of almost destroying it out of frustration, I simply gave it a little pat and bid it a fond goodbye, putting it back in the closet, where it resides to this day.  I had learned my lesson.

So, my fellow CW operators, the moral of the story is:

1) Don’t smoke.

2) If you do, quit.

3) And, do not, I repeat, DO NOT, quit smoking while simultaneously attempting to use a Bencher BY-1 for the first time.  If you’re in that rattled state of mind and haven’t been on CW in a while, you may want to ease into the return with a J-38 or something.

Your Bencher -- and your sanity -- will thank you for it.

73 de W9EBE
SOC #1053