How do we sound on-air?
It’s always fun to receive a recording of one’s signals.
Even better is to receive a video!
So I was delighted to have an e-mail from Dimitris (aka Jim) SV8ANW with a video of our recent 10 minute CW QSO on 30m.
Click here to see the video of our QSO
I could tell that Jim was using a bug key as they have a distinctive sound.
Having owned a Vibroplex in the past, I was intrigued to see him clip a clothes peg on to the vibrating ‘dots’ arm during our qso.
He tells me that this increases the weight on the arm, so slowing the oscillations that produce the dots.
You can hear that the timing of the dots relative to the dashes is better once the clothes peg is used.
That’s high tech CW!
I wish I’d known of this trick when I had my Vibroplex bug, as I always found my dots being produced faster than they should have been – despite following lots of advice on how to set up the key.