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Reviews For: Vibroplex "Code Warrior Junior"

Category: Keys & Paddles

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Review Summary For : Vibroplex "Code Warrior Junior"
Reviews: 41MSRP: 99.95
Description:
Compact iambic key featuring a soft adjustable magnetic action.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.vibroplex.com/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
15413.7
N6PG Rating: 2023-02-08
Great paddle for me Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Reading these reviews I realize how much the cw paddle feel is a personal choice. I use a Bengali at the home QTH, but I need something for SOTA and in my RV. I have some very light paddles that I use for long hikes, but I much prefer to operate with a heavier base. My Bencher BY1 or 2 was obviously too big for hiking and I worried about the spring being damaged from a fall or something in the RV. The Code Warrior is solid and basic. I like the feel, but I did have to do some adjusting for the right tension. I really enjoy this key!
KG5IF Rating: 2021-11-27
Not a pleasure to use Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought this paddle primarily for portable use and it's okay for that. For me for my home qth the paddle is way to light. I did notice underneath vibroplex chose to use hard rubber feet which allows the paddle to slide around on a smooth surface necessitating holding the paddle with the other hand. This can be fixed by either using a rubber mat which helps alot or replacing the feet with soft rubber feet. For my home qth I bought a used BY-2 Bencher which is a much better choice for me and it has a much better feel. An update to this paddle it has moved on due to many issues which I was able to fix but others such as slop in the paddles were unfixable at least by me. Two ball bearings would have made a world of difference. I like Vibroplex and really wanted to like this paddle but No...
KN6SU Rating: 2020-11-15
Very good but does need help Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I use this for portable operation, though at 21oz it is not the lightest key available. That 21oz, however, does make it much more stable than lighter weight paddles you need to manipulate with both hands. Its actual design and materials are quite good, but there are some very irritating manufacturing flaws, though these are not hard to overcome. I needed to use a slightly longer screw in the center block to install a strain relief cable clamp and you can easily find better rubber feet for the base. It took me a while to get the magnet tension and contact spacings just right, but I didn't find that too difficult. Others have commented on lever slop, but the one I got had just a barely detectable up-down play on the left lever...I took it apart and noted that the cylindical brass bearing was slightly proud and a few swipes across very fine wet-dry emery paper took care of that play, so now there is no slop whatsoever. Note that this vertical slop is due to improper bearing height...so adding washers won't fix it. In fixing it you don't want to take too much off the bearing, which will make the lever bind when tightening down the holding screw...so use very fine paper (eg 1000 to 1500 grit) and remove a little bit of brass at a time...

I prefer to use my Bencher Hex Key in the shack. That is one phenomenally smooth iambic paddle. If it weighed a couple of pounds less it would be my favorite in the field as well. The Code Warrior Jr., however, is quite good for portable use, after I spent a couple of hours tweaking it. I agree with those who criticize the manufacturing defects. If this paddle worked as well as it does now when I got it from Vibroplex, it would be phenomenal for a paddle of its size.
W9OD Rating: 2020-08-10
Not what I expected Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I purchased the Code Warrior Junior several years ago, tried it and hated it. It was sloppy and not put together very well. Saw a mod to tighten it up on YouTube, tried the mod. Still sloppy. Got lucky and sold it for a bargain price at Dayton.
W4FID Rating: 2020-08-09
Not Vibroplex quality Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have enjoyed Vibroplex products for 50+ years. Got my first bug when I was still had my a novice license as a high school kid. Have had one in the shack ever since. Enjoyed their classic grey base bug with my Collins station for years. Still have their single lever paddle in use on my Icom station today. But the Warrior I got several years ago for my portable station was very disappointing. Hard to adjust. "Loose" feel especially in the vertical from sloppy tolerance. No where near what Vibroplex quality stands for. The size and look were very attractive. The manufacturing tolerances were not. I dumped it fairly quickly and found a well used but nicely functional one of their dual lever paddles on the triangular wood base with the built in keying chip. It is great. It has a lot of miles on it but functions beautifully.
WB7VTY Rating: 2020-08-09
solid paddles at a good price Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I will preface this by saying that I literally just bought these paddles today and have only made a couple of contacts with them. I am also not a super high speed cw op. Im happy around 20 to 23 WPM. I can send at 30 but not a prayer of receiving well at that speed. Therefor this review cant address reliability or life span in any way, or what a 50 WPM person might think of them. The reason that Im writing this review so soon is because I almost didnt buy them due to the luke warm reviews they have gotten. My experience out of the box has been great so I wanted to just get the comments out there in the event somebody was looking at them or has already bought them and the comments might help. I have had a couple other vibroplex products and have been very happy with them. When it came time to buy another set of paddles I landed on these as the price was right and I had never owned a set of paddles with magnetic tension adjustment. Based on my prior vibroplex experience I decided to try them out and Im really glad I did. Right out of the box, they worked fine but I needed to dial in the adjustments. Gap was too wide and tension too high for my taste. If there was anything I could ding the paddles on its the fact that you have to disassemble them to adjust them. BUT... that is much easier than it sounds, and the reality is, that yes you could design them differently with adjustment knobs so you didnt have to do that, but then they would most certainly not be the nice compact and low profile size that they are. SO, considering how easy it is to do said adjustments, in my opinion its a good trade off, not a ding. If you are the sort that likes to constantly fiddle with paddle adjustments, these are not the paddles you're looking for (insert jedi hand wave). That would be a pain if you like to change the setup all the time. In my case, paddle adjustments are a set and forget as long as they stay put. Best advice I can give you is try them out just as they come out of the box and decide what you need to adjust. Then, read the instructions as to how to make the adjustments. Next, before making any changes or taking anything apart, study the mechanism and just see how the adjustments affect gap and tension. Its a very simple mechanism, but this small amount of fore thought will make your tweaks easy. When you decide to tweak, do so deliberately and carefully, noting how much of a turn you give any particular screw. It really is much easier than it sounds and I only had to make about 2 rounds of changes before I had it just right. Easy to take apart and reassemble and I doubt the entire process took me more than 10 minutes. After a bunch of practice today and a couple of contacts, so far the adjustments seem solid and stable. I really like the magnetic tension adjustment. When I got it right, its smooth, light, and positive. For my settings the paddles are heavy enough to sit still on the desk. If you are a paddle slapper and like wide contact space and heavy return tension, you may find they are a little too light and wonder around. Some have commented about the vertical wobble in the paddle arms. Mine also have this "feature". If I wiggle the paddle vertically there is some wobble to it. In use this doesnt come into play and I dont notice it. Its a non issue unless its just one of those mechanical issues that bugs your sense of precision. Anywho, I really like them, adjustment is easy, they are great on the desk and small enough I will be taking them portable. Unless something goes wrong, at this point I feel it is 99 bucks very well spent for paddles. Happy to answer any questions. Just shoot me an email at wb7vty@gmail.com.
73,
Joe
N3DF Rating: 2019-07-06
Solid Paddles Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have used my code warrior jr. for over ten years. It has a good feel to it and has maintained adjustment perfectly. Never had any "wobble" problems with the levers. I like its modest size and business-like appearance. It is more than heavy enough for my style of keying. A fine item.
BOYSCLUBRADIO Rating: 2019-06-04
well...made my own Time Owned: more than 12 months.
before it became the code warrior jr... it was the k8ff norcal key kit... yep it was sold as a kit and lots of people bought them... I got mine and used the NC bridgport to make two .. one brass and the other alu...
The brass one I still have... used auto points contacts.. and a magnet from a extraction tool... the Alu one that I used for mobile cw... got stolen... and of course if it ever showed up I know exactly where it went because I made only one...
Vibroplex took over and started producing them out of steel base and brass parts... nice but as you said.. the QC leaves a lot to be ...done...
Instead of just using a bushing as the orginal said... I used 3 inst ball bearings... that pressed into the arms.. no play their... but the second item that needed help were the screw blocks... here I used two (2) 2-56 screws in each instead of the single one... much better idea.. and solid...

I made a few other changes to the orginal k8ff norcal key design.. but those were my personal preferences.. such as a knee velcro mount... and paddles material...

Otherwise I enjoyed the keys... they worked pretty good for me... if you set them up for a soft touch... but I know a lot of the people in our club tried it and slapped it around saying it was hard to hold on to...
About the only thing I can add is .. you have to practice with it... as its not like any other type of key... magnet tension also requires that you keep it away from other dust and dirt that can stick to the magnets...

the ones I made I would give a 9... the ones that are made... only get a 1... because of craftsmanship...

Good luck in the contest.. as these make a great mid weight portable key... that is totally adjustable...

WA4FOM Rating: 2019-06-03
MFJ Quality at a Vibroplex price! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
My reviews are generally polarized, and this shall be no exception. I purchased this little abomination a few days ago brand new and fully aware of the slop problem between the brass paddle arms and the base with a bag of brass screws and washers at the ready to make the modification. What I was not prepared for was the loose fit between the starboard plastic finger piece and the channel in the right brass paddle arm, resulting in even more vertical slop. Yuck.

I expect QA problems with some devices; it happens. But you'd think that Vibroplex, yes *VIBROPLEX* after all these years would know how to spit a set of paddles off the assembly line that doesn't rattle around like a rack of chicken bones for a VooDoo shaman. It took me 1.732 seconds of use to notice this. I suspect a QA engineer should have been able to do the same.

Save your money and buy a Schurr or a Begali. Looks like I'm going to have to fix this one myself; sending it back to "The Shop" isn't worth my time and effort. I'll probably do a better job anyway.
K0EMT Rating: 2019-03-25
It's all true... here's how I got it to work Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Everything the other posts have said is true. Fiddly and wobbly. But, I do like the feel and look of this paddle. So, with nothing to lose, I set to how I could improve them. I ended up moving both washers from the arm under it, put a new washer on top and a new longer bolt. I made a video to show all of this and it is posted here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9TfSVA0jTY