I seem to make a lot of mistakes sending with my Palm Paddle and every so often when sending CQ it seems to complete a character I didn’t think I was sending. Is this just my incompetence or should I try adjusting the paddle? I expect it’s the former but I wondered if anyone has found the factory settings weren’t quite right for them.
This is all at home so no cold weather or damage in transit.
Hello Richard I have two of these paddle and they work fine. I must have dots on the thumb to send cw with any paddle, my brain won’t work for me the other way around. My first key had trouble with the lead to the radio but I now have the modified lead compliments of Palm Radio after a discussion on this forum a few years ago. You may need to run the gap a bit wider until you find your sweet spot.
regards
Ian vk5cz …
Factory settings for paddles are akin to bike shop settings for bikes. In both cases the items will “work” but the final settings will need to be determined by the user to suit their individual needs.
Radio set for Mode B??
As Richard states above, it could be the keyer characteristics, not the key itself. I started my CW activations with RockMites and then I progressed to KD1JV MTRs. I get on fine with both RMs and MTRs, but put me in charge of an FT817 and I’m sending extra elements on my characters!
Regarding setting the key, I tweaked my settings fairly early on and never really found a sweet spot. I find that I need quite a gap on the Mini but the key makes a very pronounced ‘click’ in use.
My most used key is my Palm Pico, I just love that key!
73, Colin
I suspect Richard’s and the problem you are referring to when in charge of a FT-817 has to do with the dot & dash memory feature.
When I bought my FT-817, it fortunately came with dot & dash memory enebled by default, so I can operate the double lever paddle in perfect iambic mode. You can be touching the dot lever while the keyer is still sending a dash after a previous touch you made on such lever and viceversa.
I started CW with a very basic straight key like this one:
Soon later I bought an electronic keyer and I home brewed my first single lever paddle. Don’t have a picture of it as there were no digital cameras or mobile phones with built in cameras at that time.
When you use a single lever paddle, you don’t need the dot-dash memory feature.
Not too long later I got my Hy-Mound 2 lever paddle. I guess it was back in 1985 or 86 and it’s the key I still use in my main shack. This one:
The shiny metal base was home brewed.
Since I got this 2 lever paddle, I immediately and naturaly learnt the iambic operation thanks to the dot & dash memory feature and the morse code sending is far more confortable and easy this way.
See this:
From this site: Michael Keller - DL6iAK
I confess I currently have serious troubles when ever I have to send morse code with a double lever key if the keyer or the rig that paddle is connected to doesn’t have the dot & dash memory feature enabled.
Have a look and see if the dot & dash memory feature is enabled and let me know, please.
Cheers,
Guru
Hi Richard,
Happy New Year.
Have a look at this old thread as it may give some clue…
Cheers,
Guru
When I was in Madeira last year I found that I was regularly sending garbage with my Palm paddle (rather than the usual occasional rubbish I always send 
) and it did not help that I was being hassled to move on! The symptoms were too many spurious characters caused by slightly shaky fingers. Opening up the gaps slightly from factory setting made a world of a difference for me.
YMMV