Hey folks, I'm Joseph, kf7qzc (T), and I have recently started using my radio again. Stopped when a combination of my health and the fact I'd moved into a steel tower made doing that difficult. With an HOA that bans antennas naturally. Not that I didn't just intend to ignore them anyway, but the balcony windows don't open, only access is via swinging door. Tight swinging door. Antenna for five months out of the year if I don't mind leaving the door open and having the YL objecting to same… hmm.
Yeah, going outside has been a problem. Albino with other disabilities, not the least of which is the stage four melanoma and chemo I'll be on for the rest of my life. I sunburn in five minutes. In January. In Oregon. Through the clouds. But I've recently started going out anyway covered head to toe until the sun's behind the hills for very OT stuff, and sometimes I'll bring a radio and see who's listening to the repeaters while I'm out.
But this ain't about that, it's about CW. I considered learning it when I was a kid so I could move from a hand-me-down CB to play with the grown-ups, but I had trouble reading the manual without a CCTV magnifier and I had no money. I didn't get licensed until interest in preparedness and emcomm post Katrina rekindled interest, and a radio from Ed Griffin when he was still selling Wouxon made it affordable enough to act upon. I did back then start trying to learn it using a phone app before I moved (Farnsworth method I think, I can still pick the few letters I learned out of traffic.) What I didn't try to do at the time was try to learn to send CW.
I can handle an iambic practice oscillator. I mean I realize it could be a few chips but I can't solder worth beans, so I'm gonna throw a µC at the problem and connect a couple knobs, a speaker, and a TRS jack using dupont wires, screw terminal and crimp connections, and a box to hide the jank. The rest is software.
What I would like advice on is the keyer. I know I could (have a friend) 3D print something. If I was truly desperate a couple scraps and paperclips would get me a key that might last a week or two maybe? But I've seen hams scoff at these and other designs saying no self-respecting ham would use something that didn't cost more an my TM-V71A did. And, at least in part justified because any keyer on a table needs to be enough of a brick that it's not gonna move around too much. If you're holding it in one hand and keying with the other for portable, maybe that 3D printed thing is exactly what you want.
I'm not the handiest ham to ever handiham (see what I did there?) but I can use a drill and hand saws, as well as the tools we use for measuring and marking. (Painter's tape, awl, square, and a thing called a click rule). Not sure where I'd get good matched springs, but I imagine I could do something with magnets, I've got stacks of the things and it seems like I'd need two. Four perhaps?
I'm guessing this is well-trod ground. I can follow a diagram in a PDF if it's clear—I have way more powers of embiggening than I did when I was a kid. I'm sitting close enough to a 38" ultrawide monitor that I can touch it and my nose with splayed fingers from a single hand, but that makes most diagrams very seeable. I just don't know what to look for that's actually going to be serviceable and simple to build with modest skills and tools. Function over form, obviously. I can't cast brass or machine stainless steel gears for precision adjustment. I can probably arrange for a screw that can be turned to reposition a magnet.
Advice welcome. Except advice to knock over a nearby bank so I can afford to buy more radio eqiupment of course. For some reason I don't think I'd get away with it. The big floppy hat is likely to give me away. Definitely the hat and not the whole albino with a white cane thing.
Yeah, going outside has been a problem. Albino with other disabilities, not the least of which is the stage four melanoma and chemo I'll be on for the rest of my life. I sunburn in five minutes. In January. In Oregon. Through the clouds. But I've recently started going out anyway covered head to toe until the sun's behind the hills for very OT stuff, and sometimes I'll bring a radio and see who's listening to the repeaters while I'm out.
But this ain't about that, it's about CW. I considered learning it when I was a kid so I could move from a hand-me-down CB to play with the grown-ups, but I had trouble reading the manual without a CCTV magnifier and I had no money. I didn't get licensed until interest in preparedness and emcomm post Katrina rekindled interest, and a radio from Ed Griffin when he was still selling Wouxon made it affordable enough to act upon. I did back then start trying to learn it using a phone app before I moved (Farnsworth method I think, I can still pick the few letters I learned out of traffic.) What I didn't try to do at the time was try to learn to send CW.
I can handle an iambic practice oscillator. I mean I realize it could be a few chips but I can't solder worth beans, so I'm gonna throw a µC at the problem and connect a couple knobs, a speaker, and a TRS jack using dupont wires, screw terminal and crimp connections, and a box to hide the jank. The rest is software.
What I would like advice on is the keyer. I know I could (have a friend) 3D print something. If I was truly desperate a couple scraps and paperclips would get me a key that might last a week or two maybe? But I've seen hams scoff at these and other designs saying no self-respecting ham would use something that didn't cost more an my TM-V71A did. And, at least in part justified because any keyer on a table needs to be enough of a brick that it's not gonna move around too much. If you're holding it in one hand and keying with the other for portable, maybe that 3D printed thing is exactly what you want.
I'm not the handiest ham to ever handiham (see what I did there?) but I can use a drill and hand saws, as well as the tools we use for measuring and marking. (Painter's tape, awl, square, and a thing called a click rule). Not sure where I'd get good matched springs, but I imagine I could do something with magnets, I've got stacks of the things and it seems like I'd need two. Four perhaps?
I'm guessing this is well-trod ground. I can follow a diagram in a PDF if it's clear—I have way more powers of embiggening than I did when I was a kid. I'm sitting close enough to a 38" ultrawide monitor that I can touch it and my nose with splayed fingers from a single hand, but that makes most diagrams very seeable. I just don't know what to look for that's actually going to be serviceable and simple to build with modest skills and tools. Function over form, obviously. I can't cast brass or machine stainless steel gears for precision adjustment. I can probably arrange for a screw that can be turned to reposition a magnet.
Advice welcome. Except advice to knock over a nearby bank so I can afford to buy more radio eqiupment of course. For some reason I don't think I'd get away with it. The big floppy hat is likely to give me away. Definitely the hat and not the whole albino with a white cane thing.