The St. Louis Key by KØFF
George, "Geo" (K0FF)
on
January 8, 2003
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The St. Louis Key:
The St. Louis key is actually a not so much an individual key, but a way of making all sorts of keys.
The "key" ingredient ( pardon the pun) is the use of parts salvaged from old Telephone Lever Switches and telephone relays.
These parts are long springy levers with very good contact points, sometimes even made of silver. Here is a picture of a typical
switch:
The handle even makes a nice knob for the keyer paddles.
A vast array of keys have been made in every style and combination of styles. Use you imagination to come up with your own wrinkle. Here is an assortment of the ones that I use around my shack.
Happy Homebrewing
Geo, K0FF
Further construction info and parts sources at
http://www.qsl.net/
Or you can e-mail me at:
K0FF@ARRL.NET
Copyright 2003 GEOelectronics
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The St. Louis Key by KØFF
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by KM5CW on December 24, 2002
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Great work Geo! Makes me want to break out the slodering iron.
73 de KM5CW, Joe
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The St. Louis Key by KØFF
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by N0UY on January 8, 2003
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Nice idea Geo. Good pictures too. This is something that I am good at. Building simple mechanical devices where my creative side can shine (instead of the top of my head.) I think I'll try build a few of my own. Thanks for sparking my interest. 73 ray
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The St. Louis Key by KØFF
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by N0UY on January 8, 2003
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Nice idea Geo. Good pictures too. This is something that I am good at. Building simple mechanical devices where my creative side can shine (instead of the top of my head.) I think I'll try build a few of my own. Thanks for sparking my interest. 73 ray
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RE: The St. Louis Key by KØFF
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by WD8OKN on January 8, 2003
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Excellent, simple and fun article for the real ham radio operator. Thanks.
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The St. Louis Key by KØFF
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by N4ZOU on January 8, 2003
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The local Thrift Store always has tons of old telephones for a buck or two. I have not been buying the old rotary phones but now I have a good reason to buy them now! All my phones in the house now are the older phones from AT&T but with tone dialing. There RF proof unlike the new cheap phones being sold now. Humm, I wonder if I can build one of these keys right on the 1/4 inch phone plug for the front key plug of my ICOM IC-756 PRO II that I have ordered?!
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RE: The St. Louis Key by KØFF
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by K5DVW on January 8, 2003
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Man, those are some groovy keys.
I've not seen those kind of phone switches in many years. Perhaps it's possible to make reed switches like that based on the design if you can't find them.
Good photos too.
N4ZOU - You're going to like that new IC756P2! I like mine! I wouldnt connect a paddle directly to the front panel plug. The repeated mechanical stress will eventually ruin the connector. Better off just cabling it.
K5DVW
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The St. Louis Key by KØFF
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by WA4BWO on January 8, 2003
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The reeds can also be gotten from a rts (ring-tip-sleeve) patch bays similar to the ones used in recording studios or telephone switching patch bays from an earlier time. Surplus houses prove to be a good source for such items. Happy homebrewing.
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The St. Louis Key by KØFF
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by WD8JWJ on January 8, 2003
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When I saw the first picture I thought now theres a guy whos been around the central office a time or two. Am I right? Nice job, articles like this make Ham Radio more fun, and cheaper, FB and 73
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The St. Louis Key by KØFF
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by WA8YIH on January 8, 2003
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Pretty cool stuff! Last week I took the contact out of an old (broken) HT microphone and wired it to a phono plug for my Omni-D. Works pretty good? I have made a few contacts with it. The one in your picture looks a little neater than mine.
Happy CW,
WA8YIH
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The St. Louis Key by KØFF
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by K6SBA on January 8, 2003
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Geo:
Looks great, but www.qsl.net does not return your web page as described in your article. Am I the only one having this problem?
73 de K6SBA
David in Santa Barbara, CA
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The St. Louis Key by KØFF
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by K6SBA on January 8, 2003
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Geo:
Looks great, but www.qsl.net does not return your web page as described in your article. Am I the only one having this problem?
73 de K6SBA
David in Santa Barbara, CA
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The St. Louis Key by KØFF
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by K6SBA on January 8, 2003
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Geo:
Looks great, but I cannot access your web page as described in your article. Am I the only one having this problem?
73 de K6SBA
David in Santa Barbara, CA
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The St. Louis Key by KØFF
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by K6SBA on January 8, 2003
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Geo: Looks great! A perfect homebrew project. I cannot access your website as listed. Is it me or is there a problem?
73 de K6SBA
David in Santa Barbara, CA
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Rarer parts
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by N0NB on January 9, 2003
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Dang!
We threw out a box full of those things a year or so ago in a clean up project. How come all the things I've thrown out over the years could make me rich on eBay, while the stuff I've kept is still worthless. Must be something about the space-time continuum around here.
:-(
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KØFF WEBPAGE LINK
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by K0FF on January 9, 2003
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Hello all and thanks for the nice comments. For some reason that I can't fathom the webpage link in the article is busted. My webpage is indeed:
www.qsl.net/k0ff
or
http://www.qsl.net/k0ff
use small letter for k0ff and of course 0=the number ZERO. Perhaps when a link is in an article like this, the HTTP:// part needs to be included to, I don't know, but eventually we can fix it. Meantime feel free to browse around the webpage, it's nothing fancy, just an index and a bunch of articles and parts sources.
I have a limited amount of these telephone switches pictured(brand new) avaiable for $6.00 plus a buck for postage if anyone has an idea and needs the parts.
73 Geo>K0FF
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The St. Louis Key by KØFF
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by 4Z1JW on January 9, 2003
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I was patting myself on the back for the paddle I made for my mobile station, out of a hunk of wood, a steel ruler, two binding posts, a coupla bolts and nuts for contacts, and a dash knob burgled from an old key and a homemade dot paddle. Then I saw 'FF's work.
My hat is off to FF and I'm gonna start rummaging around for a lever switch and do it right this time.
Joe Weisberger
w2fjf_4z1jw@hotmail.com
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Threw out those old relays ...
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by KF6IIU on January 9, 2003
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.. dangit, I had a small pile of those old relays and tossed them a couple years ago.
That's what I get for moving two times in one year! Real hams NEVER MOVE.
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The St. Louis Key by KØFF
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by WA2JJH on January 10, 2003
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As always you amaze. Did you know Samuel morse's prototype telegraph keys used all sorts of junk.
The boobin of knitting string had the metal key over it.It gave it a nice feel. No a JJ-38 it was not.
I remember a ham friend giving me his "GREIF KIT"
electronic keyer. It was a hot item in the 1970's.
They circuit it self was easy to build. It came with aluminume iambic paddles. It was all aluminum.
Lousy design never had a good feel to it. My friend
had no problem soldering up the Heath kit cicuit board.
The paddles you had to construct was insane. He gave me the keyer, with most of the paddle parts missing, or bent out of shape out of frustration. I did not do much better.
I finally took a pinapple juice can, and cut paddle rods with a metal shears. I then put lots of electrical tape over the aluminume strips. Piece of wood same L brackets, and nuts and bults. Put my paddle assembly in the heath kit box. It worked great for about 5 months.
Sure glad "bencher" introduced a plexiglass and stainless steel iambic paddle set. They were only about $20 back in 1977. Put those in the Greif kit keyer and never looked back.I made a stupid mistake.
IBought a Vibroplex bug at a flea markwt The Heathkit keyer with the bencher paddlels I traded for a ht-220.I see HT-220's for $5-10 bux.
Never got used to the Vibroplex. I still have it. It is a old one.
I liked you post because I can relate to all the Keys and Keyers I have built. I once made a single transistor keyer. You hade to bend the contacts on the radio shack 12 volt relay just right. I also had to add and subtract capaitors to get an ok dot to dash ratio. The key was just a strip of tin can. 2(l) brackets. Had to bend the l brackets and the nuts and bolts just right.
Finally adelco then MFJ made memory keyer kits.
I was 18, I was so mad when some company had the nerve to make a cw keyer in one chip!!!! I spent 2 days building the adelco memeory keyer. It had about 15 TTL chips in it. Took another 2 days to find were the bad solder joint was.
My TS-850SAT has a keyer in it. I will try some of your paddle creations. I might glue poker chips to the paddles. I guess I will have a "trump" keyer!!!
Visa-Vi a smith chart, I might do on for D.C. current.
73 and laugh's WA2JJH MIKE
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