Background: American Morse is a US-based manufacturing company which builds CNC-shaped precision products. They can be found at www.americanmorse.com Their approach is to keep it simple and build a few things really well. I was looking for a solid base station iambic paddle, and the KK-2 seemed like just the thing. It is!
The folks at American Morse build everything as a kit, and can ship kits or built product. I wanted the kit, of course. "I build, therefore I am..." Assembly was a snap--took about 15 min to prebuild, after which I disassembled, sanded out burrs, and did final assembly. This is the final product:
The paddle arms are machined brass. It's not visible in the picture, but the arms are actually hollowed. The paddle tips are nylon. Everything else is high grade steel. As you can see, I've done nothing to "protect" the steel base--there are some rust spots appearing. I'm tempted to brush the base with my grinder and put a quick clear coat on it. That would look cool, but of course have no effect on the paddle's performance.
The paddle does not ship with a cable. I was toying with building one from scratch but when I got to Radio Shack and priced options, buying a stereo cable turned out to be cheaper vs buying wire and plugs and building it. In keeping with the garish color scheme of the Hendricks PFR3, I bought a lime green cable.
Wiring was simple -- first I cut one end off (leaving a couple inches of factory wire, in case I ever need that tip), then I made sure which wires went where on the plug, then I wired them up based on iambic paddle wiring guides online. The outcome is rather nice, I believe:
The black wire holder fit the factory cable perfectly. Everything feels solid.
The real question is, how does it work? I'm an absolute beginner when it comes to CW, so all I can say is that it's been a joy to use during my CWOps "CW Academy" training class. The rubber feet you see in the photo leave something to be desired when using the paddle on a Formica desktop. My buddy WB6YOK recommended I cut a mousepad to fit inside the rubber feet, and while I haven't done it yet, the idea has merit. But keying is precise and the device works great.
According to American Morse, the KK-2 weighs in at 1.5 pounds (24 oz). I haven't weighed it yet, but that seems accurate. As I will be operating in the backcountry as well as from home, having a "mid-weight" unit was important (although I am seriously considering their DCP or Port-a-Paddle kits for lightweight backcountry use).
You can find this paddle online at http://www.americanmorse.com/kk2.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment