Chinese 'long arm' reduced scale Morse Key?

It's a nice looking key, the Chinese seem to be getting into the morse key market recently, a friend of mine just recently bought a twin paddle (round base).

Maybe it's with morse key prices going silly over the last years that someone somewhere has twigged that theres money to be made.

Why prices have gone daft I'll never know, you'd think there was a morse revival going on. Example ... Bencher BY-2  .. ?240


Craig

 
Just saw it myself on ebay. From the pictures it ticks the boxes - long lever, contacts at the rear, nicely massive at 1.2kg. So it probably handles well.

On the downside: no independent reviews, no collector/heritage value, and would one get stung for VAT/duty on receipt?
 
There are several sellers flogging them on ebay (haven't checked aliexpress and Bangood but they might be on there too) and currently cheapest is about ?87 delivered. They are often priced in USD and the pound has risen due to optimism over the EU trade deal, and might go up a bit more yet when it's announced (hopefully). So I am getting a wee bit tempted...
 
Hmm... a new variant of this has now shown up on the well known auction site:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CAT-Keyer-Morse-Key-Telegraph-Key-Long-Paddle-Manual-Key-For-Shortwave-Transmitt/164668632678?hash=item265703ee66:g:GB0AAOSwwFZgD9C8

It now has a jack for the cable.
It is available in metallic blue or green.
The original model had a stainless steel base. Not sure about this one but it looks like it could be anodised aluminum?
Finally there is one further enhancement to maximise the pleasure of exercising one's skill in radiotelegraphy: it has a picture of a cat on it.

 
Definitely an anodized alloy base now, weight is now 0.8kg as opposed to previous 1.2kg.
Looks nice and like the proper bearings on the pivot, but not sure I'd pay that much for a Chinese key.
Kent comes in at about the same price as this.

73
Craig
 
GM0WEZ said:
...Finally there is one further enhancement to maximise the pleasure of exercising one's skill in radiotelegraphy: it has a picture of a cat on it.
Click to expand...

Maybe the key is not pre-assembled but comes as a kit-ten ;D

When I read your comment I had to paws for thought! ;)

I did try bidding on one but I missed it by a whisker ^-^

I wonder if the key is sent via scratch-post :))

73, Mark... :w:
 
No idea why the cat has been added. I did wonder if it was a reference to this:

"You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat.  You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles.  Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there.  The only difference is that there is no cat."

Which pretty much sums up the magic of radio. The quotation is usually attributed to Einstein, although there is no evidence he ever said it. Nevertheless, it is quite old - first recorded in 1924.

Would be interested to see a review of these Chinese long lever keys. Is it a pedigree Siamese, or just a coughed up hairball?
 
That looks a useful key. I think it must have an integral crystal RX - I'm sure I saw a cat's whisker somewhere.  :D

Though I don't have a moggy at home, if I did I would call it Tencat after the Ten Ten International mascot.

 

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Wow, they do an optional autokeyer attachment for this key as well.
Pretty smart, not sure I like the gold colour though :P

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Chinese-Waving-Hand-Lucky-Money-Cat-Feng-Shui-Wealth-Fortune-Neko-7-UK/253378974666?_trkparms=aid%3D777008%26algo%3DPERSONAL.TOPIC%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D230263%26meid%3D66d3e50203964f198696fb62a74249db%26pid%3D101260%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D1%26mehot%3Dag%26itm%3D253378974666%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2380057%26algv%3DPersonalizedTopicsV2WithMLR%26brand%3DUnbranded&_trksid=p2380057.c101260.m47269&_trkparms=pageci%3A75f2e70a-6146-11eb-aa34-2e58beccc985%7Cparentrq%3A4833abca1770aa6529424500ffdce8ee%7Ciid%3A5
 
My wife got one of those - the the Chinese cat with the oscillating paw.

I don't know why but the paw movement always reminded me of a certain Austrian dictator. I guess my Feng Shui is bad.
 
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