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Reviews For: Jackson Harbor Press PK series

Category: Keyers & CW Keyboards

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Review Summary For : Jackson Harbor Press PK series
Reviews: 8MSRP: 12 to 20
Description:
Several small Iambic keyer chips and boards
Product is in production
More Info: http://wb9kzy.com/pk4ssr.htm
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0085
NC4RT Rating: 2013-07-22
Great keyer value Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought my PK-4 in May 2013, paying $45 for the basic keyer PCB and parts, and including the optional speaker/transducer, the speed control potentiometer, various jacks and switches.

The kit is a one-night, 2-3 hour kit for the PCB, taking my sweet time. There are not many components, and I did a thorough check of component values and labels.... it took me a couple of additional hours to lay out the connecting wires, drill some holes, and get everything installed.

The primary strengths of the keyer are its very reasonable cost, its fun factor, and its small size. I didn't use an Altoids box, as it was tough to locate the speaker and speed control pot... instead I used a plastic box from Radio Shack that's maybe 2 x 2 x 4. It's still small enough to qualify for easy QRP/backpacking duty. If you have a small paddle (such as the Palm unit), you could mount the paddles on the keyer and make an integrated unit out of it.

The primary weaknesses (well, not really weaknesses; let's call them "things that could be easier") are the semi-complicated menus and the morse coded abbreviations used to navigate among them. It takes a little thinking and careful reading of the instructions to figure out the various functions and how to properly program them.

But for the price, it's a wonderful project. It fired up the very first time I applied voltage... (albeit, the initial code speed was so fast, I didn't realize it was operating properly).
KG0WX Rating: 2009-09-07
Talk about service! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I'm using a PK4SSR kit. I ordered the kit one day and it arrived 2 days later. Now THAT is good service!

The PK4SSR fits nicely in an Altoids tin including the 9v battery AND speed pot (not a miniature size) and a push button. The trick to getting it all to fit was to mount the PK4 on top of the speaker then mount the pot and push button in the lid of the tin. If you do it that way there is plenty of room.

Now to get to reading the extensive manual.....

Ken KG0WX
HA5RXZ Rating: 2005-05-30
10/10 Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Spectacular standard of service from this company. Worth dealing with.

HA5RXZ
VE3JRR Rating: 2004-05-23
Excellent Keyer Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Great little keyer. Run it on my 10 meter beacon. Very easy to build.Good quality all round.
K7UV Rating: 2002-01-05
Easy,small, great little keyer. Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
First kit I've built in years...since my eyes got worse with age. I built one for my 2M beacon and 1 for my HF rigs.
On a scale of 1-10 with 10 the best:

Quality of board: 10
Quality of components: 10
Clarity of instructions: 10
Instruction diagrams: 10
Accessory kit: 10

Case: 5 (Too small for 9V battery and for mounting the speed control pot. So I left the pot out and change speed with the paddles...very easy to do.) Second kit I built in an "ALTOID" can for more room and still elected not to buy or use the pot.) All of the accessory kit items are available at Radio Shack.

Battery Life: 8 (Only a month on the beacon...may consider outboard 6V lantern battery)

Programming:8 Instructions need to be followed VERY CLOSE)

Functions Available: 10 Everything that a $129 keyer has except for smaller memories.

Overall rating: 9.5
W0BR Rating: 2001-12-23
Convenient way for manual CW Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Having the rig connected to the computer for keying, there is no easy way to manually send without fooling with the controls on the radio. When I saw the previous review, I had the solution - add the PK-Basic keyer.
Delivery was fast - assembly was simple. Chuck shows it powered with 3 to 6 volts - I added a 78L05 regulator and a couple of capacitors (the board is laid out for them) and run it off 12 volts.
KC0IIN Rating: 2001-11-28
A great little keyer Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Though I have owned for about 4 months, I didn't get it working til a few weeks ago due to a buzzer problem I caused. I built it (except for the buzzer) in less than an hour. It was my first kit and it has very easy to build. It has several great features, for example automatic CQ which requires no additional memory, 5-39wpm, can be a beacon, has 2 memories of 52 characters and one of them can be split into two. It has very easy to use menus that can be brought up and use with just the paddles and the memory switch. I plan to get another to mount in an altoids tin to use with a qrp radio when I build one. Because of its size (I mounted it in a radio shack about 2x2x4 enclosure) it goes great with Palm Mini Paddles which I use with it.
73,
Jason KC0IIN
K1XM Rating: 2001-09-12
Fine little keyer Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've been using the PK-2, which has been replaced by the PK-3 as part of my small travelling station.

There are at least three companies which make keyers based on the PIC microprocessors. I like the Jackson Harbor products because they use a potentiometer speed control. Some others require pressing a button or tapping the dot or dash paddle.

The timing of this keyer is nice, reducing the number of errors I make when I am tired. By the end of a long contest this is noticable.

The keyer is small and light. I put it in the same box as my rig/computer interface.

The behavior of the keyer has been flawless.

The website has full information including PDF files with the schematics and instructions. And WB9KZY has been good about answering my e-mail.