Subj : Re: Queen City Power Outage
To   : n2qfd
From : Ed Vance
Date : Thu Aug 15 2024 20:47:20



>  Well Ed. I think the Wire placement is coincidental. Had to look up south
> paw! I do lead with the right on the desk. 

>   Cootie Keys.. I got into that some time back when I was doing a lot of CW
> and getting some wrist pain from the J-38. I still have it and cherish it as
> the key my father gave when I first moved out and set up my own station.
> However I found as I worked with my hands my arm was not in it as much as my
> heart wanted! Back in the early 2000's I was working on water wells in the
> southern Adirondacks which could do a number on you. Winters meant a lot of
> shoveling for us and my father-in-law was still working his little softwood
> mill and as a contractor so I was often shanghaied into tailing lumber,
> helping finish piece work or some contracting job from plumbing and
> electrical to joint work and taping sheet rock or roofing and siding... You
> never say no to a job in the mountains. Eventually I found work surveying but
> that wasn't much easier on the body, just different. So the cooties gave me
> back the ability to enjoy a longer CW session again. They as you said let you
> have total control over how you shape the characters. I think folks that send
> fast on them have a sort of unique sound it it. At this point I'm pretty well
> sold on the Vibroplex. I thought I made a mistake but I love it, I love the
> real feedback it gives you. The keyer in the radio works fine but it's like
> sending CW as a mime with no weight but the air. 

>   Hooray for old machines! May we all be so well regarded long into the
> future! 

>   Mal

> N2QFD{Queen City BBS}:// "Does this need to be said? Does this need to be
> said by me? Does this need to be said by me right now?" - Craig Ferguson 

> --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Raspberry Pi/32)
>  * Origin: Queen City BBS (21:1/154)

Mal, Southpaw means "left handed".
At work, my boss told me I was Wrong Handed .

Hmmm, the  Cootie Key lets a Ham customize his fist.
Myself, when I worked CW years ago B4 the XYL had me remove the coax that left
one room and went up the attic staircase, when I sent code I tried hard to make
it sound like it was sent from a Farnsworth(sp?) tape machine.
.. . . .   . .

When not using the J-38 key sometimes I would send code with my Left Thumb on
the Bug lever.  I do try to be a good LID.

When I got my Novice ticket I bought two crystals: 3720 kc/s and 7173 kc/s.
Used them until I got the General ticket.
Later bought a Knightkit VFO so I could talk on 3960 kc/s to the locals.

When I was a teen a friend who worked at a Movie Theater as a Projectionist
showed me how to thread the Film and how to switch from one projector to the
other during the show.
When he found another job, the theater owner asked if I could work there and I
did for a couple years B4 I joined the Navy.

While I worked for the movie theater owner, he had plans to open another
theater but the Seats at that location needed replacing.
He learned about a theater in a near by town that hadn't been used for years
and bought the seats that were in the building, and guess who helped him with
getting the Seats moved to the other building? Me.

I still remember that hot summer task.

Just wondering, do You do any woodworking now?
In Junior High School and High School I took Wood Class(s).
Built a Cedar Jewelry Box in Junior High and built a small Table in High
School.

After the Navy I worked at a Furniture Company.
First hired to learn how to use a Vertical Drilling Machine, but three weeks
later the man who brought Jigs (Wood pieces used to hold the piece in place
while they are Drilled or Shapen or Routed, etc.) to the Machine Operators was
about to Retire and I was asked to learn his job.
Did that for a while until asked to run a Router Machine.

At home, I will "butcher" some pieces of wood occasionally when I think it is
with-in My capabilities. Tho not very often.

I used the word butcher because that is what a local Ham called himself, He
said He was a "Wood  Butcher".
After hearing him say that I called him on the Landline and told him about a
End Table Project that was in a Book that Kroger Grocery Stores had sold snall
sections of each week to their customers.

My Wife and I both liked the looks of the cabinet but I didn't have the
machines and tools to make the thing .
Ray (the Ham) , made two of them for us.
(I just now remembered what they are called) Cracker Barrells.
Duh.

I'm long winded (again), so 73
de Ed.  .  .
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