That's about the best way to describe the recent buying splurge I've been on at the eBay Web site. No, nothing too expensive, but steady.
I recently entered a Buy It Now bid for a McElroy Mac Key that showed up for sale. The listing had no photo, and you had to read his listing to realize that this wasn't a straight key but the deluxe version of the Mac Key bug.
The seller offered to send photos, but as posted earlier in my “Carpe Keyum” entry, sometimes you just have to believe. And sometimes you get lucky. I figured someone more cautious would wait on the the photos. The key sounded worth his Buy It Now price, so I jumped at it.
The mailman delivered my new Mac Key today, and after nervously opening the box, I was dismayed to find the key packed in wadded newspaper. ARRRGH!
But wait … after unpacking the tightly stuffed wads of paper, there was a Mac Key in the middle — in perfect condition!
The seller had removed the weights and the finger pieces at my request and taped the pendulum to the damper. The key survived shipping without a scratch!!
Other than dust, the key is all original and in near-perfect condition. I can find a couple of tiny chips in the finish on a corner, but nothing you notice even using it.
The key is a 1938B Mac Key, serial number 1340. McElroy added a “dot stabilizer” to the dot contact on the pendulum in 1938. The stabilizer preloaded the dot contact, giving cleaner makes-and-breaks to the dots (or dits in ham jargon). Does the stabilizer work? Some say it does, but probably is more evident on higher speed CW. Mac, as displayed on this key's serial number tag, was still the “world's fastest telegrapher.”
Interestingly, this key does not appear in the serial number lists published by Tom French, W1MQ. In the early 1990s, Tom wrote a book on McElroy bugs, and both of my other McElroy bugs are in his serial number lists. My new one is not, which means it likely hasn't been bought or sold on eBay.
According to the seller, this key came from an estate; the seller listed some additional keys on eBay Sunday evening, though I didn't need yet another Vibroplex Original. They were attractive keys, and like my new Mac Key were priced to sell.
I've only given the key a not-so-thorough cleaning, and it sure looks great. It plays very, very well — it was fairly well adjusted from whenever the original owner used the key. It's got very good action, just like its 1939 counterpart. I cleaned the key's contacts using Tarn-X and a couple of Q-Tips — a method that works very, very well on even the worst condition contacts. You just don't want to get the Tarn-X on anything other than the contacts, it can damage paint and chrome. Fortunately you can dilute it quickly with water if you spill it on anything. I've not had anything but excellent luck using it on my keys.
SPEAKING OF MAC KEYS … My 1936 Mac Key is simply waiting on weights for before its takes its place on my operating desk. I received some brass for weights in the mail recently, and over the weekend I cut some for weights. I didn't count on the barn being so cold, and I worked as long as my numbed fingers would let me. I need to go back and drill the holes through the center of the weights and then drill and tap holes for the adjustment screws.
SPEAKING OF SPEED-X … Who was speaking of Speed-X?? Well, I almost did in the above paragraph. The real reason I was out in the cold, cold barn to finish work on the damper for my damperless Speed-X 501 bug. I got the holes for the mounting screw and the damper wheel mount drilled and tapped. Not quite as “factory” looking as the original, but hey, it's functional — and that's the goal, to get the key on the air.
The homebrewed damper is brass, and if it was chrome or nickel plated it wouldn't look so obviously homemade. It works as well as the original. If I had to do it over again, I would buy some round brass rod the size of the damper wheel in order to have that part better finished. I'm using two washers to approximate the action of the single, thicker damper wheel. That works fine, but one of the first thing you notice is “hey, that's two washers, not the original damper wheel that's supposed to be there!” I'm happy to give up form over function when it comes to getting an old key back on the air. And fortunately I won't be making Speed-X dampers in large quantity.
I have an identical Speed-X Model 500 T-bar bug that I've had on the desk that's in as-found condition. I plan to clean the key up completely and make the latest Speed-X addition my “daily driver.” I've got room for several keys at my desk and I will continue to keep a number of bugs in the line-up, including a Mac Key, a Cedar Rapids bug, a Speed-X 500 and a Vibroplex bug of some stripe, probably my 1920 Blue Racer.
WOUFF WOUFF! One of the auctions I've been watching lately was a listing for a 1948 ARRL National Convention Wouff Hong. The national convention piece is a cast metal piece, consisting of an ashtray base, with the Wouff Hong standing upright in the middle — not a very glamourous place for a legendary ham radio symbol, eh? Ah, such were the times though, when smoking and ham radio were both considered “cool” activities!
The Wouff Hong ashtrays were centerpieces for the tables at the convention banquet. In photos of the museum area of the ARRL, they have a couple examples of this very Wouff Hong on display.
The one on eBay was in superb condition. The seller wrote that the reserve was “just under $150.” I didn't pay anywhere near that for mine, as mine was listed by the seller as a “Art Deco Cactus.” The seller didn't know what the heck of Wouff Hong was; there's nothing to ID it as such on the item itself. Mine is on display in my shack, though it doesn't inspire the fear the origiinal allegedly did. One pre-teen friend of my daughter asked me once why I had an art deco cactus among my ham radios, but I suspect that question was planted by my mischevious offspring.
Sadly, despite the League's best efforts through the years, many hams don't have a clue what a Wouff Hong is or what it stands for. Reminds me a little of the newly licensed ham who asked me on the repeater, “what's that beeping noise?” when the machine automatically ID'ed. If we don't tell 'em, who will? Something tells me the spark guys sang a chorus of the same song ….
The Old Man invented a number of other torture devices for wayward hams beyond the Wouff Hong. I read one of TOM's “Rotten” articles aloud to my wife and she found it rather disgusting … she found nothing funny at the though of a human being being boiled in transformer oil and rettysnitched into submission. Twas different times, eh?
I'll take my Wouff Hong and 60-year-old bug and slide down to 80 cw … the KSN will be firing up soon.
73 fer nw … de KY4Z … SK …. dit dit ….