I had the J-38 and to this day am so sorry I sold it. It was in mint condition. I have yet to find one that is clean and intact for a reasonable price.
73, Bill K9YEQ -----Original Message----- From: elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net [mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Don Wilhelm Sent: Sunday, June 24, 2012 7:48 PM To: Ronald Nutter Cc: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: Re: [Elecraft] CW Key suggestions ? Ron, For paddles, the Hex Key from Elecraft is always a good choice - it is about half the cost of premium paddles from N3ZN or Bengali (use Google). I recently acquired a single lever paddle from Tony N3ZN and can tell you it is a work of art and extremely smooth operating. For straight keys, check out the popular auction sites for J-38 key, or look at the N3ZN straight keys (not yet priced) at http://www.n3znkeys.com/c/7/straight-keys-coming-soon. Nostalgia fever has driven the price of the J-38 key up considerably. Back in the '50s when I was a new ham, they were available for $1 or $2 - but then you could also buy an ARC-5 transmitter or receiver for $5 - we generally stripped those for parts to use in other homebrew projects, but some remain intact and are selling for high prices if they are still in good original condition. 73, Don W3FPR On 6/24/2012 8:23 PM, Ronald Nutter wrote: > Thanks to all that have responded to my previous questions. > > The next thing I am looking at is getting a CW key. I am thinking about > getting the "plug-in" key that is an option for KX3. Since the KX3 that > I have ordered probably wont be in my hands until sometime around > Christmas based on the other emails I see of order date to ship date, I > am looking at getting a CW key for the FT817 I will be using in the > interim. > > I am thinking about possibly getting two different keys - a straight > key, possibly a Nye-Viking type and maybe something similar to the > Iambic keyer paddle as my cw skills improve. While I probably wont do > CW all of the time, it doesnt hurt to be more fluent in that mode than I > currently am. > > Would appreciate any suggestions in this area that anyone here has. > > Thanks, > Ron > KA4KYI ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
