American Morse Equipment Porta-Paddle II

Key: American Morse Equipment Porta-Paddle II
Serial: None
Vintage: Unknown
Acquired: March 26, 2026
Plate: None
Base: Black crinkle finish on steel

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Click on an image to enlarge. All photos are original works by the author unless otherwise noted.

Review

It is difficult to place a production date on a piece of equipment that you bought second-hand and which has no identifying marks such as a serial number located on it. Thanks for the power of the World Wide Web, however, and the excellent resource that is the Internet Archive WayBack Machine, I was able to learn more about this American Morse Equipment Porta-Paddle key that I purchased at auction earlier this year.

The earliest advertising on the American Morse Equipment website that I could find for the Porta-Paddle key was from October 2002, which shows an aluminum iambic paddle key which is anodized in a blue-green sort of color. A “clear” anodized variation arrived a month later. The key was offered at $59.95 plus a $4.00 shipping & handling fee and the product description suggested that there were accessories that could be purchased separately, namely a leg mount, desk base (what I have with mine), and mounting brackets to attach the key directly to a transceiver. The original desk base was a square hunk of steel which was powder-coated white and was priced at $17.95 with a $5.00 shipping fee.

The key in the photographs above is nearly identical to mine, at least in physical shape, except mine has a crossbar with the AME logo engraved into it that spans the top posts of the paddle pins. With that difference in mind, I continued looking through old archived copies of the Porta-Paddle page in the WayBack Machine hoping to find when my key design first appeared.

By the end of 2007, the Porta-Paddle had undergone a revision which added a crossbar between the paddle pins and was now being offered as a customer-built kit for a price of $68.95. The updated version was dubbed the Porta-Paddle II and sported a lighter shade of blue anodized body and paddle arms with the paddle pin crossbar being a gold anodized piece of aluminum with the AME logo engraved upon it.

In 2010, the Porta-Paddle II would undergo a slight improvement. The hex nuts that once served to secure the dit and dah contact screws once adjusted were replaced with tension springs which allowed the user the ability to fine-tune contact adjustments on the fly without the need of a separate wrench to loosen and tighten the hex nuts.

Around October 2014, customers had the option to choose either the original light blue anodized key or a new all-gold anodized key and costs for the Porta-Paddle II kits had risen to $74.00.

In early March 2024, Doug Hauff, W6AME, shared an update on the company’s website that he was to take a leave of absence and that new orders would be allowed, but no keys would ship until he returned the following month. A notice was posted again in late July of 2024 and mentioned a return to normal business operations by early August. The notice was updated to read that he would be taking a “long needed vacation” beginning in mid-November with a tentative return date in the middle of December. By mid-2025, the notice was changed to state that the vacation was extended “until further notice” and that notice apparently has yet to be given. I sent an email to the address on the AmericanMorse website to ask about my key, but never got a response.

So, while I was not able to truly figure out when my particular Porta-Paddle II was manufactured, I did learn that this revision of the Porta-Paddle most assuredly was being produced between 2007 and 2024. It’s not clear if my key was purchased before 2010 when the tension spring update was made available or if it was purchased afterward. My key does have the tension springs installed. I see no marks anywhere on the paddle arms which might indicate that someone used a wrench to tighten a hex nut, so my inclination is to believe this key was manufactured post-2010 and never had hex nuts installed.

Whatever year my key was actually manufactured may forever be unknown. What is known is that this key is of a very high quality despite its overall simplicity. Paired with the steel desk base, the Porta-Paddle II performs amazingly well as a field key, which is how I use it most often.

k2mas.net is not affiliated with the American Morse Equipment company.