As mentioned in the most recent issue of the Expired Ham newsletter, I’ve been working on a new feature of the website to showcase and catalog my growing Morse code key collection. The feature is still in the works, but it is now available for enjoyment of all who may be interested in such things.
When viewing the mobile-friendly version of this site, you can find the new section by tapping the menu icon at the center-top of the page and then tapping on Morse Code Keys. You can peruse my key collection by tapping any of the photos on this page. There will be one photo for each brand of key I own. Tapping a photo will take you to a new page that then shows all the keys I own from that particular brand. Tapping on a specific key here will take you to additional photos of that individual key and a short review of it. Not all photos lead to a new page at the moment. As I said, I’m still working on getting the remaining content created and added where it is missing. Some of the photos will launch a gallery view of the photo tapped/clicked along with the other photos available on that page. All photos were taken by me and are of my actual keys. I apologize in advance if some of the photos load slowly as one of my goals is to provide high-definition images of these keys which is a bit of a sore point for me regarding some other online sources of photos of antique bugs and such. There has been several instances where I needed to compare a bug for purchase with known examples of the bug elsewhere and I was unable to find decent photos which showed enough detail to positively identify a particular variation of a bug. So, hopefully these images can fill in some blanks for others who are searching for good quality comparison images.
On the desktop version of the site, just click on the Morse Code Keys navigation link at the top of the page and then follow the same instructions as with the mobile site.
The key review text will be updated as I learn more about particular keys and come across new information during my research of them. I want to state at the moment that I do not claim to be any sort of expert collector of these keys. In fact, I’m only just recently getting started with the hobby. But I do find these keys interesting to learn more about, and I’m having fun with it so far, so I’m expecting to have a good amount of solid, verifiable information shared here for anyone who needs it.
Enjoy the new feature, even if you’re not a key collector or CW op. Let me know what you think about it and certainly if you find something not working quite as expected. I’ve tried to find all the quirks and hiccups that I could find before making the new feature publicly accessible, but there’s of course a chance that I’ve missed something.
73s,
Matthew, K2MAS
K2MAS.net 