My home-brew mini paddle for QRP rigs

Here I am again with a little bit of spare time and a love of radio. Yesterday I was dreaming up solutions for a portable paddle morse key and thinking about how much it might cost me to buy a new one. My solution was to have a go at making my own. I followed one simple rule copy the basics of something that works, my palm mini paddle uses PCB material to make the arms for its paddle and I knew I had some stuff in the junk box that would allow me to experiment before shelling out any money on a new key. The result was what you see in the picture below and on the video linked to this blog post.
I am really happy with the simplicity and ease of use for what is essentially made from scrap materials and costing me nothing more than my time and effort. I have made a few contacts on the key connected up to the FT-1000MP Mrk V and to the HB-1A you kits radio. I had no problems other than a few errors due to my lack of familiarity with a new key. My results show its always worth having a go to see what you can come up with before spending any money on something to solve the problem.

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