My experience with bugs and commercial CW differs from the general
thread ... with a 2nd Telegraph, a friend got me a job as a relief
operator at a coastal marine station during my senior year in HS (1957).
I was 16 and breaking into the crew of OT's was somewhat daunting --
physically as well as verbally (child abuse laws must have been
different then). About half way through the year, I and a ham buddy
built what I think were the predecessors of the TO keyer. ~10 dual
triodes (12AU7, I think), keying relay, and big power supply. I don't
remember where we got the plans. It weighed about the same as a brick.
It was self-completing, but had no other features we take for granted
now, and I modified my Lionel J-36 (which as a stock bug would get dot
speeds down to 15 WPM or so without a "tamer") to key it.
I took it to work one evening, and got the usual abuse I got when I did
something wrong or stupid ... fairly common since I was 16. As I was
finishing my 3rd shift with it, Tom asked me if I'd leave it so he could
"play around with it." Next shift was a couple or three days away, and
when I went to work, I had to plead to get my keyer back. By the time I
graduated and went off to college, Tom, Earl, and Walt had comissioned
my buddy to build each of them one.
I did get accepted onto the crew, although I still got boxed around
some. On my last shift, they had a cupcake with one candle and the
Chief made a production out of taking my license down and signing the
service record. All three OT's were using their keyers by then. I also
remember ... "fists afloat weren't always all that great." Mine was
perfect of course.
I can detect some very subtle timing differences between my K1EL keyer
and the way the K2 keys. Both are Mode A, and it seems that the K2
timing is a very teeny bit erratic compared to the K1EL. It's not
enough to cause any problems for me, but it is discernable, or at least
that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Fred K6DGW
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