I recently acquired a very nice Junker straight key, in almost mint condition. It was manufactured in 1987, so is one of the later ones.
I wired up the key with my modern solid state transceiver and noticed a serious lag between key down and the transmitter actually keying. On further inspection, I noticed an LCR circuit under the key, so when the key makes contact, the switch actually closes a LCR circuit, and not a straight connection. It appears to be some kind of electrical filter or damper. Anyways, I carefully removed the resistor and capacitor part of the circuit and it now works perfectly. I left the inductor in place. Does anyone know the purpose of this circuitry? Is it for older high-voltage rigs? It seems to cause problems with my modern transceiver.
I made sure anything I do to the key is easily reversible, as I don't want to ruin a historical key.
73 - Brian KM6ZX