Help Needed

[ChrisHunt]

Hi Folks, among my few other activities in life I'm what's called a Friend of our local library. At a recent meeting I made a, some may say rash, commitment to hold an event in the library for Science week in March. Being an ex Scalie and cryptographer to boot and with the recent Alan Turing publicity I thought I would hold an event based around DIY encryption, simple stuff as most of the audience are expected to be no older than 13-15 (at best). Anyway, I thought I'd add a bit of interaction with the aid of a morse key with sound generator - send your own message in morse, that kind of thing. Here's where you come in... do any of you know who might have and be willing to lend a morse key with built-in sound generator? I've tried our local Royal Signals association but sadly they appear to be off the air as nothing heard since my email of several weeks ago.

Any assistance would be very much appreciated.

Regards,
Chris

[Tako_Kichi]

Try contacting your local Ham Radio club or county RAYNET group as they are very likely to have morse keys and tone generators laying around.

I have several morse keys (including some home-made ones) and tone generators but unfortunately I live on the wrong side of the pond now to be able to lend them to you.

[Myles]

If you are unsure of where your nearest amateur radio club is, try the RSGB website at www.rsgb.org. There is a 'find a club' section on that and you should be able to get contact details as well. I do agree with Larry that that might be the best way to go and they might even be willing to put on a special event station for you if you talk to them nicely

Best,
Myles

[ChrisHunt]

Many thanks chaps - much appreciated. Will have a look at that website this evening. Larry, if you don't mind me asking what on earth are you doing with several morse keys and tone generators?

Regards,
Chris

[DaveB]

Here I am an ex-kellick (auto correct won't let me spell Killick .. ah.. it does if I use a capital!!) sparker and I don't have a single morse key lying around!! That said.. all of ours were bolted or screwed down OK.. we had portable keys with our 'field' radios but I never had an inkling to borrow one on permanent loan

Good luck with the event Chris
ATB
DaveB

[ChrisHunt]

Thanks Dave. It seems there's a few of us around (still) but one wonders for how much longer; youngsters these days don't know they're born - no morse, do they still do HF? When I were a lad etc etc etc!

[airboatr]

Imagine 4 generations from now.

[Tako_Kichi]

Larry, if you don't mind me asking what on earth are you doing with several morse keys and tone generators?

That's easy, I'm a long time Ham Radio operator (although not currently active) first licensed in the UK in the mid-80's. I was also an active member of RAYNET in the North Staffordshire group where we provided emergency communications services in times of emergency/disaster. We also provided communications services to a number of public events like marathons, triathlons, Birmingham Superprix, Tall Ships races etc. In addition I was also a Civil Defence volunteer and one evening per month I would operate radios from inside the local nuclear bunker as if we were in a state of war, passing exercise messages covering things like radiation levels, shelter conditions, food supplies and damage reports.

As to morse keys I have a 1953 era ex-RAF straight key given to me by a friend. When I got it the thing had spent years lying on a shelf in his garage and was in a sad state. It was zinc plated and it had corroded badly with lumps of white, crusty, oxide all over it. As I started to clean it up I saw a glimpse of yellow and knew immediately what was under the plating. Sure enough, after several hours of filing and sanding, I had a beautiful solid brass morse key with silver contacts! I mounted it to a nice piece of oak and it's a joy to use.

I also have a commercial twin-paddle key (one side sends dots and the other dashes) and two home-made keys. The first is a 'side swipe' key I made from some bits I had lying around, just a couple of blocks of wood, some wood screws and a 6" metal rule which serves as the paddle. The other I built as a joke and it consists of a wooden clothes peg (the spring type) with an extension on one side for a longer 'throw'. The contacts are made from a copper water pipe wall clip and the grip is a knob off a kitchen drawer.

[511Flyer]

If it helps ... my wife's got lots of wooden clothes pegs.

[airboatr]

Interesting discussion .. ATB Chris.