Dear SOTA friends,
I apologize for my keying today. Had problems with the connect line from key to FT-817ND. Very sorry. Tried to fix it on the run, but no real effect, hi.
Will see to repair when at home or get a spare cable in FRH at Hamradio.
See you and tnx for your understanding,
73 bye
John EA6/OE7PHI/p
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Hi John,
i was waiting for “my” turn just before you began to have issues with you key.
Not a big deal anyway, Even movie stars have failure sometimes.
Sorry that you had to shorten your activation.
Hope to hear from you soon on air.
Vy 73 de Laurent - F5OGJ
On a recent activation in the Czech Republic I had the same problem John, in my case it was the dot paddle which had a mind of its own - uncontrollable. My problem was witnessed by top activator OK2PDT - Jan joined us on a few summits!
Fortunately I was carrying a spare Palm Paddle Key and lead in my bag and plugged that in to my KX2 for the rest of the day instead of using the Elecraft built in paddle key on the radio. Cleaning the contacts of the built in paddle key with paper that evening fixed it. I put the problem down to the extraordinary amount of tree pollen in the air when operating in Czech woodland. I need to put the contacts under a magnifying glass though - to the naked eye it looked like the dot paddle could be worn. I must take the KX2 out of the bag and check…The built in paddle key is less than two years old, so if worn that should not be the case. I have two Bencher paddles here that are around 30 years old, a chrome and a black with gold plated contacts - they never need cleaning or adjusting and show no wear at all. Too heavy though for carrying on activations and not in any way portable. I imagine if I started to carry them around I would have problems with those as well.
73 Phil
Phil
You should always take your Bencher with you in case you find yourself stuck up **** creak.
73 Mike
The Palm Key as backup is what I carry - it got used in this case and is about1/10th the weight of the Bencher, although not as nice to use Mike. 
73 Phil