For many years, the ARRL has sponsored Straight Key Night (SKN) on New Year’s Eve, running through New Year’s Day (0000Z – 2359Z 1 Jan). More of an event than a contest, the purpose of SKN is to enjoy making CW contacts with old keys and bugs. In recent years, SKN has expanded to include the use of vintage equipment.
This was my first SKN in many years, and it was a lot of fun. One of the reasons for this is that there were so many stations working the event, more than I’d ‘anticipated.
I used a variety of straight keys, including a little QRP key in a little plastic box from White Rook and a Ham-Key (I think Ham-Key is out of business, unfortunately). My favorite, however, was the WWII-vintage, J-45. According to K6IX, the J-45, “is the well known ‘leg clamp’ key consisting of a J-37 mounted on a metal plate hinged to a spring metal, inverted ‘U’ shaped clamp made to fit snugly around the thigh of a seated user.” I purchased this last year on our club’s bus trip to Dayton for $10.
The J-37 is similar to the J-38, but uses a piece of spring metal instead of a coiled spring. I like the action of this spring much better than the coiled spring. One thing I didn’t like is how tightly the clamp fits on my leg. I know my legs are larger than average, but even so, I couldn’t wear this key for more than about a 30-45 minutes. I even tried bending the clamp, but this was only minimally effective.
It took me a while to get used to sending with the straight key again. My fist was kind of poor during the first couple of contacts, although I eventually did warm up and start sending better code. I found that I had to play around with the key adjustments a bit to get a better feel.
Even when I got the settings right, though I couldn’t send for very long without taking a break. My wrist began to hurt and my arm got sore. Things were a bit better with the J-45 versus the Ham-Key and QRP key. With the J45, the leg mounting afforded a bit of shock absorption, making the brass pounding a little less harsh on the wrist.
Even so, it’s a good thing that SKN is only one night a year. It’s back to using a paddle and keyer for me!