G4HAA
Administrator
I found this kit on eBay the other day, and bought one on a whim! :-[
Essentially it is a PCB Morse key with a small buzzer and LED, all on one PCB assembly.
The kit took about one hour to assemble. Everything fitted together fine, and the finished kit looks quite reasonable.
Apart from the on-board buzzer there is a socket to allow a cable to be fitted to use the key with a transceiver, or there were also some solder tags supplied (I did not fit these), to allow a cable to be attached permanently.
The silk screen overlay has all the Morse characters from A-Z plus 0-9, which is handy if just learning the code.
Pro's:- The kit went together well, and all parts are supplied, even the button cell to power the buzzer. It also arrived very quickly, so 10 out of 10 for that! bd
Con's:- There are two surface mount resistors which could prove something of an issue if the person building the kit had not worked with such components before. The other problem I found is the buzzer itself. If you leave the cover sticker fitted so as to reduce the volume, the operation of the buzzer is erratic. With the cover sticker removed, despite the designer having allowed for a series resistor so as to reduce the volume, it was still very loud. Certainly too loud to be used at night at my QTH!
All in all fine then, with a few minor niggles perhaps? I might have a dig through my junk box and see if I can find a more suitable buzzer, or else try modifying the circuit as it is someway. The other item I might change or modify is the button itself (I really don't like metal buttons on keys). Also, the arm of the key could do with being a little bit stiffer than it is. It is not possible to rest your fingers on the key button since the tension is fairly low. So this makes the key better for tapping rather than gripping.
At the end of the day it was good fun to build, and no doubt I will spend many hours trying to make it feel like a PS213!
)
73, Mark...
Essentially it is a PCB Morse key with a small buzzer and LED, all on one PCB assembly.
The kit took about one hour to assemble. Everything fitted together fine, and the finished kit looks quite reasonable.
Apart from the on-board buzzer there is a socket to allow a cable to be fitted to use the key with a transceiver, or there were also some solder tags supplied (I did not fit these), to allow a cable to be attached permanently.
The silk screen overlay has all the Morse characters from A-Z plus 0-9, which is handy if just learning the code.
Pro's:- The kit went together well, and all parts are supplied, even the button cell to power the buzzer. It also arrived very quickly, so 10 out of 10 for that! bd
Con's:- There are two surface mount resistors which could prove something of an issue if the person building the kit had not worked with such components before. The other problem I found is the buzzer itself. If you leave the cover sticker fitted so as to reduce the volume, the operation of the buzzer is erratic. With the cover sticker removed, despite the designer having allowed for a series resistor so as to reduce the volume, it was still very loud. Certainly too loud to be used at night at my QTH!
All in all fine then, with a few minor niggles perhaps? I might have a dig through my junk box and see if I can find a more suitable buzzer, or else try modifying the circuit as it is someway. The other item I might change or modify is the button itself (I really don't like metal buttons on keys). Also, the arm of the key could do with being a little bit stiffer than it is. It is not possible to rest your fingers on the key button since the tension is fairly low. So this makes the key better for tapping rather than gripping.
At the end of the day it was good fun to build, and no doubt I will spend many hours trying to make it feel like a PS213!
)73, Mark...
