I use a chemical de-oxidizer/cleaner on my key contacts: Caig DeOxIT. It's not cheap, but the tiny 25 ml squeeze bottle I bought years ago is still 80% full.
I squeeze out a drop that hangs between the open contacts for a few minutes, then I wipe the excess off with a bit of paper. One treatment lasts many months, in some cases more than a year. That problem did not exist before modern solid-state gear. Significant voltage/current flowing through the contacts provided a "self cleaning" action that broke down oxidation and other contaminants. Unless one carelessly used the key on a circuit that produced arcing, it was extremely rare for key contacts to require attention. But, with the miniscule voltages and currents sent through key contacts by modern gear, I found that keeping the contacts clean was a constant hassle until I stumbled across the DeOxit. (No, I don't own any stock in Caig...) 73, Ron AC7AC ______________________________________________________________ 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
