Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2018 — Just a few moments today to write about one of my earlier eBay finds that remained unopened for many months.
Yeah, you’re thinking “Zed Man, why not open the boxes when they arrive? You’re not hiding them ALL from the XYL, are you?”
No, dear reader, not “all” … that’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it, hi. The truth is that when a key arrives and I know its a key, I usually do not rip open the box immediately (unless it has that tell-tale “clank” denoting a poorly packed key). As hectic as my schedule can be, I would rather leave keys safely boxed until I have time to mess with them.
Such was the case with this newcomer to my collection, a “Like A Flash” semiautomatic bug from Levensons Radio of Syndey, Australia.
The key is obviously a product of the Buzza company in Australia, since it is a copy of the Buzza 100. I had forgotten about this key, it was a quick purchase — a Buy It Now, if I remember correctly. The Buzza Co. has an interesting history on its own, but here’s a little about the label under which the “Like A Flash” key was sold.
LEVENSON’s RADIO. Levenson’s Radio Shop, Sydney was a popular source of mainly practice type morse instruments. It is not known if they made the items themselves or sold items made by others with the Levenson name attached. Certainly their ‘Like a Flash’ semi automatic key is the same as the Buzza 100 and it is fairly certain there was an association between the two. (Courtesy https://australiantelegraph.wordpress.com/).
LIKE A LIGHTNING BUG? The Like A Flash bug resembles the Lightning Bug only because of its triangular pivot frame. The differences outweight the similarities.
I like the individual pivots for the keying lever sections (dits and dahs). Instead of a metal Buzza nameplate, Levensons silkscreened its name and the key name on top of the base, with the “Like A Flash” name in red, lightning bolt-type font.
Another interesting aspect of the key is that it is equipped with two weights — one very large one, and a second vibroplex-style flat-lever weight (the original Buzza weight was round with a slot).
If you look closely at the key in the photos, you can see that the silk screening is worn away, apparently by the large weight, which is just barely above the surface of the base. When I opened the box, the weight was actually riding on the base because the pivot screw had loosened, allowing the weight to lay on the silk-screened label.
The key is one SOLID key! I need to clean the dot contact, but it would be fine for operation once fine tuned and cleaned. That large weight is huge … note its cut to fit around the damper.
73 es CUL de KY4Z SK …. dit dit ….