Not true you have to buy one second hand but there are plenty of them out there.īefore I write another word, let make it clear that my above Summary comments and rating are for this keyer in it's prime in the early 1960's. I finally got mine around 15 years ago.įor some reason at the top of the page it says this product is still in production. To me, there was something about automatic sending with a vacuum tube circuit that was very cool. They had been around for 10 years at that point and hams were going to solid state keys and selling their TOs. When I was a new ham I would see TO Keyers in operation at hamfests. If you are used to other keys and/or keyers, you may not care for it. If you are a bug operator and you have a properly functioning TO Keyer and the proper Vibrokeyer paddle, you will fall right into it and love it. to work right.Īs I am used to a bug, the TO Keyer and Vibrokeyer paddle is like having a fully automatic bug. This is one vintage item I run right into the wall outlet at 122 v. I also discovered that the keyer functioning suffers when run on a buck transformer or variable autotransformer getting the supply v.
1020 cps osculator keyer plus#
That plus 0.1 mfd caps across the paddle lugs to ground finally cleaned up the Ground-the riveted sockets had built up resistance. Eventually I noticed a 1 ohm resistance between the tube sockets and chassis and re-strapped all the tube sockets to To make a long story short I wound up recapping the whole thing, and trying a number of other fixes, making One thing it did was start off with a dit instead of a dah when sending the letter M or O these became W and J. Over the next 2 or 3 months I had it on the bench trying to figure out what was wrong. When I discovered the problem was never me it was the TO Keyer. I got out the TO Keyer and gave it a spin. I had to completely disassemble it and replace a few parts, clean all of the chrome and contacts, put on new rubber feet and a few otherįixes but eventually it was good as new albeit having a used appearance. I found an old one on eBay that was beat up and bought This is mentioned in the review below mine. Of the Vibrokeyer single lever paddle, having a gray base and black finger pieces.
Then several years later I learned that when the TO Keyer was new, Vibroplex came out with a special version When I got my HA-1 from a hamfest, I tried it out and had difficulty with it and put it away thinking it The operator never worked for a long time with a bug or his TO Keyer is not functioning properly but it is not immediately apparent. The operator does not run a rig that has a cathode keyed line.ģ. The operator is used to Iambic keying and paddles or may want to contest and push buttons.Ģ. Here's my theory as to why the TO Keyer is not a favorite with some ops:ġ. Realizing everyone here has given it a 5, there are nevertheless some hams who prefer other ways of sending CW. I must be some kind of troglodyte to prefer it. My favorite keyer is the TO keyer and a vibrokey single lever paddle. Some of the carbon resistors are certainly out of spec, so be familiar with repairing HV tube gear before plugging it in or you'll likely ruin the transformers and tubes. the original caps are super leaky and need to be replaced. It will improve your fist by making you more aware of your own timing.īe aware that by now 60 years. It seems to like higher speeds, just like its creator W9TO did. I had a 27wpm QSO with it today and it ran great.
The sidetone is a bit square-wave-ish but the blinking neon bulb makes up for it in a mesmerizing way. It works great with my HW-101 and I don't have to worry about the key line voltage with this beast sitting in front of the Heathkit. I happened to already have a 1962 Vibrokeyer that works great with it, but I did have to adjust my fist to avoid losing inter-character DITs as it has no DIT/DAH memory. Some damage occurred during shipment that broke the internal neon bulb used for sidetone generation but I had a spare handy, and with new electrolytic caps it was up and running.Īs others have said, use a single lever paddle. The first time I saw one of these keyers with the glowing power regulation tubes and 500v capable wetted mercury relay I knew I wanted one.Īfter I became interested in restoring vintage tube gear I finally ran across one in reasonable cosmetic condition.
I'm still a relatively new CW operator (less than 5 years).
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