I've continued to play with my new Electro-Bug, and trying to evaluate its spring-loaded dot contact screw vs. the Vibroplex-style U-shaped mount for the dot contact.
Having tried the key both ways, they both work pretty well. The only problem so far is that when you use the key without the U-shaped Vibroplex style contact mount, the continuity of the contact seems to be a little scratchy. As the contact is pushed in, I'm guessing its dirty and makes the dits sound a little scratchy, at least through the sidetone.
Using the U-shaped dot assembly, you can set the key to make dits that do not press the contact in so far, and they seem to be somewhat less scratchy.
A shot of good contact spray would probably fix it. I think the original setup will work fine; both will I'm sure.
The base is mostly cleaned up now on the new Electro-Bug. To clean it properly, I need to go ahead and disassemble the key and spend some time on it. I've had fun playing with it as is for now.
Thanks to the big RTTY contest this weekend, cw on 40 and 80 is being compressed into about 30 kHz. I heard RTTY stations as far down the band as 3530 kHz. Contest weekend, so I guess that's to be expected. I had expected to maybe fire up the HW-8 or the HW-16 again, but not tonight. Contests are no place for QRP, lol!
I had a great ragchew last night with W8ZNX near Detroit. Mac was running a one-tube txmtr and a Collins 75S3 receiver. His 8 watt signal was still 589 with some QSB. I felt silly with my 746's 80 watts output. He owns a used bookstore, and we discussed old radio books and collecting. He's a frequent poster on QRZed too.
I'll try 80 cw again about 2 a.m. to see if its cleared up much. The band conditions sound pretty good, so
I suspect it'll be a busy contest night.
73 … de KY4Z … sk