Monday, Jan. 16, 2017, 2 a.m. — I have nothing good to report in regard to the band conditions on 80 CW. The last several nights the NCS is barely readable, though I did squeak in one QNI while the propagation blew in my favor before falling back down into the noise. At this rate I need to email the NCS and let him know I’m out here copying the mail.
All is not lost, however. I’m tending to a little “filtering” of stuff in the shack, and also attending to my latest acquisition, the Mon-Key electronic keyer, chronicled in this space recently.
Tonight I pulled the cover and cleaned the keying relay in hopes of clearing up the scratchy sidetone. I’m pretty pleased at how well the key works, and though the resistors DO build up some heat, the key still operates well. As I wrapped up my little operation and tested the key again, I realized that I missed where the problem lay. The keying relay is fine; but where to most problems center when it comes to audio scratchiness? The variable potentiometer — in this case, the volume control for the sidetone. There’s a spot or two on the volume where it works great, but as you turn up the volume, the audio gets intermittent and scratchy. I’ll see if I can clean the pot, though it may make more sense to replace it. That’s a job for tomorrow night, or later this week. More on that later.
FROM ‘ROCK CRUSHER’ TO PADDLE SUPPLIER. I recently received a very nice note from Donnie Garrett, WA9TGT, in regard to my recent entry, “Getting a handle (paddle and knob) on this key collecting ‘thing’.” He had read my post and thanked me for the mention of his work supplying a variety of paddles and parts for the keys we covet and collect.
Donnie owns and operates 2B Radio Parts. If you buy from 2B, you are assured of quality craftsmanship on the parts, and he has replacements for paddles that have been unavailable new for decades.
His expertly crafted paddles and weights benefit from his many years of work at General Motors at the Muncie, Ind. transmission plant. Its ironic that his plant manufactured the Muncie “Rock Crusher” transmissions, which among my gear head friends and I in the 1970s, sought to find.
At the time I owned a 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air 2 -door hardtop with a 327-cube small block with a solid-lifter cam and a Holley 750 atop an Offy intake. The Chevy had a 3.90 rear (allegedly a hogs head from a heavy duty Chevy truck of unknown vintage). The guy I bought it from in 1980 told me the rear end had survived years of punishment in street drags. The tranny was allegedly an M22 Muncie — known as the nearly unbreakable “rock crusher” transmission. I found out some months later that it was an M21 when I dumped the clutch at high rpm and stripped three teeth from the input shaft or first gear, my memory is a little fuzzy … I just know I limped home with the vision of dollar bills flying out of my wallet.
If I had known what I know now, I would have just repaired the M21 and taken it a little easier on the tranny (i.e., no 6000 rpm starts, lol!). I was on the hunt for a rock crusher, and I found one, forking over what back then seemed like a lot of money. It was a real M22 — the gear whine, that lovely gear whine, made it clear it was a true rock crusher. The rock crusher needed a rebuild, it would pop out of 4th gear on occasion when decelerating. Taking it out of the car on a clutch replacement, it appears there was some front-to-back play in ends of the mainshaft. I put it on my to-do list … it stayed there for the next 32 years, hi hi! Wasn’t a big enough of an issue to tear down for it. Thanks to WA9TGT for the great key parts, and his contributions to hot rod gear boxes everywhere.
73 es CUL de KY4Z SK … dit dit …
Oh those were the days, the 55, 56, and the 1957 Chevy’s. Owned them all and I always made sure the Vibrator / OZ4 powered AM radios worked! Memories of the past including my Lafayette HA-350 receiver, 3 crystals and my DX-20 transmitter.