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Strange CW Keys
- notatoad 1y agoWhat?
- 8organicbits 1y agoThese are keys (buttons) for tapping out morse code. Creative, but probably not practical.
- r_lee 1y agoWhat do you mean the Moomin Triangle CW isn't practical?
- re 1y agoA CW Key is apparently a switch used for transmitting Morse code. Make sure to click through to the individual pages to see them in use, e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghx3r_OFmt4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghx3r_OFmt4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_CW_Operators%27_Club https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_CW_Operators%27_Club https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegraph_key https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegraph_key
- Barbing 1y agoGreat video. Trying to think of another activity where one hand is doing something so complex while the rest of the body practically looks bored. Nothing comes to mind.
- alanbernstein 1y agoVideo games?
- jdietrich 1y agoFor a skilled CW operator, it's just like touch-typing. There's no conscious effort involved in either sending or receiving. You hear words, not dits and dahs, and your hand just sends whatever you're thinking automatically.
- whizzter 1y agoSome of these would make great oldschool spy- or detective-movie props, like the rubber stamp being overlooked by "stupid" detectives whilst the smart detective directly connect it to a callsign to uncover the murder victims secret life with regards to ham operations.
- kevindamm 1y agoI've seen morse code written around the border of images (e.g. Spy vs Spy did this) which easily goes ignored by the uninitiated, and even when noticed can often escape further detection. Another note: since in the US there are only four letters allowed as the first letter (A, K, N, or W) and will be 4-6 characters with further restrictions on which can be letters and which can be numbers (2-by-3 being the most common, 1-by-2 and 2-by-1 only being available to higher license classes, where those are the numbers of letters before and after the region identifying number). You could use this in your detective story, along with other details like inferring where they got their license from or getting more details from the FCC. Following this up with an inspection of the radio and which frequency was recently used, could make for some interesting detective work. Ham Radio doesn't make very many appearances as a plot device.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- thombles 1y agoFor today's 10000: amateur radio operators call Morse code "CW" since it's a Continuous Wave (unmodulated) transmission while you're pressing the key. The most basic kind is a straight key which simply transmits when you push and stops when you let go. Electronic keyers often use iambic paddles/buttons where you use one switch to create a series of "dits" and the other switch to create "dahs" yourself, which is less physically demanding and lets you hit higher WPM. There are examples of both types here.
- throw-qqqqq 1y ago> For today's 10000 Just in case someone didn’t catch the reference: https://xkcd.com/1053/ https://xkcd.com/1053/
- swiftcoder 1y agoYou can't 10,000 the 10,000...
- pkdpic 1y agoSomebody could probably throw out the probability of those two 10,000 sets overlapping. Not me though, unless it's 10,000^2...
- type0 1y agoIt's never 10,000^2. But the important part is: It's Over 9000!
- swiftcoder 1y agoThe Venn diagram of "people who regularly read xkcd" and "people who think about morse code" is pretty much a circle
- actionfromafar 1y agoYou wouldn't 10,000 a car.
- resters 1y agoless strange ones: https://www.i2rtf.com/keys---paddles.html https://www.i2rtf.com/keys---paddles.html https://www.n3znkeys.com/ https://www.n3znkeys.com/ https://www.vibroplex.com/ https://www.vibroplex.com/ https://www.westmountainradio.com/product_info.php?products_id=touch_key https://www.westmountainradio.com/product_info.php?products_...
- austinallegro 1y agoThe first URL, Begali are the Ferrari of CW keys, with prices to match. Incredible workmanship and still a family-owned and run business. Worth every cent.
- motorest 1y agoHere we are railing against $500 mechanical keyboards, and some dude whips out $500 CW keys. The ultimate one-up.
- julian_t 1y agoThe comparison with mechanical keyboards is spot on! Despite having nothing to do with radio or morse in any way, I was given a Vibroplex and it is quite a piece of kit - solid as a rock and obviously a tool well suited to its one task. It reminds me of some of the old tonearms used on turntables, with many springs, counterweights and possible adjustments.
- masklinn 1y agoGot to say it’s interesting to read this comment and check the site and prices are 150~600 (the upper end being an anniversary edition aluminium and stainless beast). Obviously really expensive for what is at the core a spring and an electric contact or two (depending on type) — which can be just one part at the expense of longevity, but as hobby pieces it seems quite reasonable, I’ve seen way worse spends from friends who fell in love with mechanical keyboards.
- dr_kiszonka 1y ago
- userbinator 1y agoThese are basically a switch for "human bit-banging". Here is a more conventional one in use: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPsgEdmlUf0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPsgEdmlUf0
- cluckindan 1y agoJudging by the paraphernalia, this is what happens after a Finnish amateur radio operator retires and suddenly has way too much free time.
- geoffeg 1y agoThere are a few members in my amateur radio club that have a (~200) collection of CW keys. Bugs, paddles, straight keys, etc. Some very obscure ones (only one or two made), some old ones, strange designs, etc. They'll occasionally bring one to a club meeting and pass it around for people to examine and try.
- VectorLock 1y agoHow many of these have they made contacts with?
- i_am_proteus 1y agoThey all have contacts; they operate by closing a circuit. 73 ;)
- zikduruqe 1y agoH e e H e e (It's not Hi Hi like most people think) Old brass pounder here.
- Biganon 1y agoThat was probably the joke.
- VectorLock 1y agoNo I was actually wondering how many have been used to send CW messages that people have been able to receive.
- imrejonk 1y agoI fully expected the smoke alarm CW key to work by picking up smoke signals: https://sites.google.com/site/oh6dccw/smoke-alarm-cw-key https://sites.google.com/site/oh6dccw/smoke-alarm-cw-key
- gizajob 1y ago"Handmade CW from Finland" - explains everything.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- hilbert42 1y agoHum, just posted a facetious comment in Morse and HN corrupted it. Thinking how to get it to post sans formatting/verbatim. Ideas anyone?
- kevindamm 1y agoput a few spaces before what you type it will produce a blockquote which I hope will remove the HN "corruption" pass .... .- ...- . ..-. ..- -.
- jpatten 1y agoLove these! On the record player, would be fun to play Morse code “records” where the message was encoded by selectively removing spots of copper from the rotating plate.
- stevetron 1y agoI didn't see the mouse-trap key.
- mikewarot 1y agoRecently my much older friend said "nobody knows how to properly adjust a Vibroplex[1] any more" I've not willingly sent CW in about 40 years, but I think I'm going to ask him to show me how to adjust one, just to know. I've learned more about repairing vacuum tube equipment than I'll ever need to know, I'm actually thinking I could do it. It's the 1000+ volts in amplifiers that scares the sh*t out of me, and why I'll not be doing that myself, thank you very much. [1] https://www.vibroplex.com/contents/en-us/d12_SEMI-AUTOMATIC__BUG__keys.html https://www.vibroplex.com/contents/en-us/d12_SEMI-AUTOMATIC_...
- mikewarot 1y agoIt turned out to be interesting, details abound, but it's not magic.