Speed-X and JJ-38 keys in the US

[gm5bkc]

Mark G0KZZ asked (in another forum) about the popularity of Vibroplex bugs in the US...

What I've found is that straight keys are really popular today in the US and two that used to be everywhere are the Speed-X and Japanese JJ-38.

My father got me a Speed-X in 1967 when I was learning Morse Code to get my ham license.  I made a pine base for it and have kept it since, although I haven't used it in years.  It has plain pivot points and mine has the Navy knob, which I really liked using, holding it with my thumb and first two fingers.  The Speed-X keys were made by WM. M. Nye Co in Washington state.

The JJ-38 is a Japanese copy of the J-38 although built quite differently.  It has ball bearing trunnion pivots as other Japanese keys had.  The JJ-38 keys were made in the 1960s and 70s and were really inexpensive in the US.

I used two of the JJ-38 keys to make my first iambic paddle in 1969   The base was lead that I poured in the lid of a pipe tobacco can (my father smoked pipes back then)..

After 50 years I figured all 3 needed new homes and in 2017 I sold the JJ-38 and Speed-X to a new ham learning Morse, the paddles went to another ham for just a bit more than the postage to mail them

Glenn AE0Q

 

[Ham4CW]

I've seen a twin paddle key built like that before. I remember reading one website years ago, and from what I could gather the op' lived on an island in the middle of nowhere.

Apparently they had plenty of straight keys laying around but no paddle keys, so he made his own, like yourself, out of two straight keys.

A daft question, but how would you describe the feel of the key? Or should that be keys? ;D

And I wonder if anyone has ever used any other types of straight key to make one? The only two I've seen used the same type of key.

Just curious.

73, Mark...

 

[gm5bkc]

I guess since I didn't know any better, it sent pretty well   The adjustments weren't great but I got it to work pretty well..

Vibroplex came out with the single-lever paddle in 1960 but no dual paddle until the 70;s.  I don't remember any commercial iambic paddles available then, and I surely couldn't afford them if they were.

I used that paddle-made-from-straight-keys when I went on a DXpedition to Gibraltar in 1974, and also when stationed in Scotland.  I never got a Vibroplex iambic paddle until about 1990.

Glenn AE0Q

 

[foggycoder]

I love the textured effect on that lead base - happy accidents.

 

[Mickey Morse]

Vibroplex came out with the single-lever paddle in 1960 but no dual paddle until the 70;s.  I don't remember any commercial iambic paddles available then, and I surely couldn't afford them if they were.

That was before my time, but these days iambic paddles are sometimes cheaper than straight keys, like GHD's etc.  My first thought about commercial iambic paddles not appearing til the 1970s was that the higher complexity of iambic keyers must have explained it.  These days you'd use a microprocessor but back then it must have been a box full of electronics.  Can I ask what you were using as a keyer back then?