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Reviews For: K1EL PaddleStick CW Keyer with Base Kit

Category: Keyers & CW Keyboards

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Review Summary For : K1EL PaddleStick CW Keyer with Base Kit
Reviews: 4MSRP: 59.00
Description:
K1EL PaddleStick CW Keyer with Base Kit
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.hamcrafters2.com/PS2B.html
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0045
ZL1BBW Rating: 2020-12-15
Great easy build Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Just finished my kit, built into a black plastic box, I got the one without a base.
Nice easy build, instructions, well even I managed to follow them and get it working.
In use, still got to explore it fully, but nice light touch, minimal contact, spaced the contacts a bit wider with extra tape.
Now to master the extra's in it.
Best of all it doesnt cost the earth and you get a bit of satisfaction in using a keyer that I built.
WH7W Rating: 2018-03-28
Silky smooth touch paddle Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Another easy but highly functional kit from K1EL.

For $59 (plus shipping), you get fully functional keyer with tons of features and it absolutely rocks as a touch paddle in paddle-pass through mode. If you have a passion for CW and have never tried a touch paddle, you should. The PS2B PaddleStick is a super choice.

You can change the gap between the PC board paddles by using multiple layers of double sided tape to suite your taste. The minimal flex of the PCB material is just about perfect as is the weight of the base.

This truly is an extremely well executed kit for a great price. See the review by WB8IMY in the April 2018 QST, page 49.
KM5M Rating: 2017-12-24
Neat-O! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Just about a perfect CW-sendin' machine. A fun afternoon assembly project with instant gratification. Finished product is packed with features. The weighted base is an excellent feature. One suggestion for improvement is include spacers and hardware so the user can increase the paddle spacing.
WD0DUD Rating: 2017-11-07
K1EL CW Keyer with touch sensitive paddles Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I needed a CW Iambic keyer for the QCX, QRP transciever I recently purchased. I wanted 'touch' sensitive paddles and a keyer with message memory. I finally found this keyer and ordered the kit. About 5 days later my XYL came in with a very heavy little cardboard box. I opened it up and found a nicely packed kit with a heavy black steel base. I took my time and in less than two hours I had the kit assembled. I scrubbed the excessive flux from the circuit boards. I plugged in the 9V battery and when I turned on the switch the keyer responded with "R". YAHOO! It works perfectly.

The manual is available online for download. It is comprehensive and leads you through the build. It also contains detailed information on the keyer command structure.

I fluxed all the pads that hold the paddles vertical to the keyer printed circuit board (PCB) and coated them with a good layer of rosin core solder. This made joining the boards very easy. All I had to do was re-flow the solder and add just a little bit more to make a good strong fillet. The keyer PCB is held to the steel base with five stainless screws and five nylon spacers are placed between the PCB and the steel base. I used a toothpick to insert into the PCB holes to align the spacers.

This is a quality kit and the base is heavy enough to keep the keyer steady on my work area.

The touch sense pads are not overly sensitive; they work great.

The keyer can store 12 messages in two banks. It has the ability to edit the message you are entering, should you make a mistake.

My only issue assembling the kit was my own limitation. I couldn't determine the colors on the 1/8 watt resistors; nor could I read the '104' on the capacitors. I was barely able to see the markings when I used a magnifying glass! 'Old Age' is a terrible thing!

I'm very pleased with this touch sensitive Iambic keyer!

WD0DUD - My personal review of the product I purchased. I don't know K1EL, but his product is superb!