Worse…. And I know from bitter experience, from my sketchy Morse. Call CQ SOTA G5OLD at 20wpm and the reverse beacon picks you up and all hell breaks loose with a pile up at too many wpm
I thought they were supposed to be the crème de la ménthe of cw keys?
I activate at 22wpm which I think is around the speed most activators work at. But there’s always one or two chasers that blast their callsign at me at a much faster speed. I’m getting better at picking out their calls but retries are likely. The QSO would actually be quicker if they sent slower.
It depends on who you ask. Trying to be objective, I’d guess that that many hams have are attracted to the shiny bright, coloured look and appearance of these keys - “eye candy”. Its what you see. The keys are OK, but unless you have experience of other keys, how will you know which is best, better or brilliant? So without experience you are likely to buy something on appearance.
I don’t remember, ever, hearing another operator, commercial or military, saying such and such a key was good looking. The reference was always based on what it was like to use, Some keys were well liked, others such as ex WW2 8 amp admiralty patterns were crap but made for WW2 needs. Others like the Marconi key used by thousands of commercial operators was liked. No one would buy the NATO naval key, or the RAF D type based on their looks. Well you can’t even see the damn mechanism unless you took the top off!!. No military or commercial radio company bought them because they looked nice.
Now and again a fellow op would own or bring in an non issue key. The first question was, “What’s it like”. No one cared about the look of it. Most commercial and military keys were built for their ability to be used for long periods without discomfort or break down and never for their looks.
I’ve used a couple of Begali keys. I didn’t think they performed as well as the better military/commercial keys. And I certainly wouldn’t have dared drop the Begali on the floor.
I certainly wouldn’t have dared drop the Begali on the floor.
If you had, and word got out, your name would be dragged through the SEWER on 80m gatekeepers, sad hams and gout nets.
You’d have been just as well marching up to Ofcom and handing in your license first thing in the morning.
Imagine the furore!
I’ll stick with my cheap Ali Express Putikeeg thingy until I make a few CW QSO’s methinks.
I’d sooner hop on 80m and have an argument with a gatekeeper about who has the worst gout.
That made me really laugh out loud!