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Thank you. I’m glad you enjoy them.

Yes, pretty cool.

Thank you, Jim. Congratulations on your over 40 years. I like the ham on a bike. Awesome. I’m just over a year as a ham. Thank you for the encouraging words. Yes, I do believe the speed will come with time and practice. I practice every day, and I see the improvement coming bit by bit. I like the bug for its beauty as an instrument, and I bought it with the confidence that I will achieve the speed with practice. I really want to do it well and accurately, so I’m fine with taking my time. I’m glad you enjoyed my video and the silly joke. 73 de KC1SPX.

@@n4jaw cool

What did the termite say when he walked into a bar? Is the bar tender here?

How about AT? Dit Dah Dah? That’s a rimshot, and it doesn’t appear to be taken unless I’m mistaken. Glad you enjoyed it. Great comment. 73 de KC1SPX

REALLY? Paste? 😊. Oh, lots of folks include their calls so we recognize you on the air. Just a suggestion. Les. WB5JWI

@@captbart3185 Callsign is in the video description. KC1SPX. Glad you enjoyed the joke.

You are hilarious. Great comment. Yeah, I can do all those things, and yet, I remain unimpressed. High tech doesn’t live up to its hype as the be all and end all. It’s useful, and even cool, and we all use it, but it doesn’t replace older skills and technology. It relies too much on complex systems always working. It’s great when it works. Hooray! CW, unlike the internet, is flexible. You can send it using a pencil, hum it, tap it, blink it, use smoke signals, whatever. It’s a skill, unlike sending email or video. Kind regards to you.

That was Steve’s idea. Problem was we forgot where we put our playing cards. Pictionary cards worked fine though. It’s like a clue. Ha ha.

Thanks. Yeah, this was a good one.

Glad you enjoyed it! I just posted a new joke if you’re ready for another one.

Glad you enjoyed it.

As I mentioned in the description, it’s silly jokes on a mechanical Morse code key called a “bug.” I even put the joke in the description, although not the punch line. Coolest way to say something clever? Use hyphens and periods and type something in Morse code. There are all kinds of encoders and decoders out there even if you don’t know the code. By the way, the answer is slippers.

@@JeanneMartin Not really familiar with the bug. So, basically, a two-way control where left is like a conventional key press (used for hyphens here), while right uses an electromechanical oscillator to burst out periods?

@@TheBypasser That’s about right, except the hyphens are on the right and the periods on the left in a standard right handed bug. The periods are formed by setting a pendulum in motion. The position and weight of the weight determine the speed of the pendulum creating that burst of periods. Pretty neat. This was one of the solutions created as a result of early operators getting repetitive motion injury from long hours at the standard straight key. The side to side motion is more ergonomic and the automatic periods reduce necessary motions. Think of a bug as being very similar to a modern paddle except that the hyphens are manual.

​@@JeanneMartin Some really mad mechanic work must I say! From what I've seen here I was more than sure the pendulum did set the velocity of the armature, yet the whole thing was magnetically actuated. Love how virtually everything here has a set screw - the degree of customization even the digital devices cannot reach for some strange reason...

@@TheBypasser Yes, it’s pretty cool.

Thanks!

Thank you for the kind comment. I’ve worked hard on my timing. I’m glad you enjoyed the video. 73 de KC1SPX

Lol. Seems like it. I could send faster if I wanted to, but I am practicing quality sending over simple speed, and more importantly, if I sent faster, I wouldn’t be able to share it with as many radio friends.

@@JeanneMartin As a learner myself, I appreciate your sending speed. For those who think it's too slow, adjusting the video playback speed takes less effort than complaining. :)

@@inazumadenki5588 I’m glad you found the speed beneficial. You’re also right about adjusting the video speed being the better option. That’s a great learning tip. That could help a number of people. I like it.

Honestly, I had not even thought of adding subtitles. I enjoy telling a joke every now and then on our local ham radio club net. I also enjoy CW. I thought perhaps others might enjoy a joke in CW, and my favorite key is the bug. I don’t think I would add subtitles, but I would consider possibly adding the joke in English possibly in the description? I don’t want to spoil the fun.

Good question. I’m going as slow as possible to allow as many people as possible, no matter where they are at in their CW learning, to enjoy a silly joke and to give a opportunity for fun copy practice.

Left handed showing off?

@@JeanneMartin Yes I see the weight is the fartest possible up. Out of curiosity, how much can you lower it and still be able to put out a signal of decent quality?

@@daveengstrom9250 Ha ha. Actually, I’m left handed, so sending left handed is normal for me. I try to practice so I can use either hand though.

@@SuperZardo Yes, I can lower the weight, but I can’t lower it very far with the speed reduction arm pushed all the way forward because the arm will hit the back metal stop making movement impossible. It’s a pendulum. Increasing the length of the pendulum in back of the weight lowers the speed. Increasing the weight at the end of the pendulum lowers the speed. It works just like a metronome or a grandfather clock. Moving the arm back and/or lowering the weight adjusts the speed of the dits faster. The dahs are not adjusted because they are completely manual. This is a semi-automatic bug, which technically qualifies as a straight key because of the manual dahs. Interestingly, it is possible to buy a completely automatic key with a double pendulum, one for dits, one for dahs, if one wished. As far as signal goes, there are several screw adjustments that “tune” the bug in a manner of speaking by adjusting the distance from the contacts. It comes with instructions but I just adjusted it till it sounded good to the ear.

I’m glad it brought back good memories for you, I like beautiful mechanical instruments. I’m a piano teacher. I love my baby grand piano, my mechanical metronome, our grandfather clock, and our cuckoo clock for their beauty, function, and craftsmanship. We even hope to go more mechanical. We bought an old mechanical sewing machine last summer. We still need to do work to recondition it, but it will be appreciated and used. The best of the old can be new again, and should be so. TU es 73 de KC1SPX

Hanno, TU for the comment. I like the Vibroplex bug. It is a beautiful precision instrument. I’ve been learning CW since I got my license, so a little over a year. You are correct that it takes a year to get up to speed on CW. I watched a video on your bug. Very nice and very similar to mine. Mine is also designed for 20 wpm and up, but the speed reduction arm allows the speed to be reduced to around 10 wpm, which is quite challenging for beginners. The bug is my favorite key. I’m glad you enjoyed the video. I’ll do another one soon. I enjoy a good joke too. DDddd dddDD Dd KC1SPX

@@JeanneMartin Yeah, then you have seen my two bugs here, the BK100 and the Vibroplex "Blue Racer". The Blue Racer is sadly vastly inferior to the BK100, because its base plane is too small, the thing tends to tilt while using it and also has no tight grip on the table. Additionally the bug is hard to adjust to give good and full dits and uses up quickly the energy for the pendulum, because they seem to have used an inferior steel for the spring. I can't recommend the Blue Racer and now am using the BK100 daily, but have to deal with those pesky 20 wpm, which are about my limit at the moment, a QSO with that will be shaky, I still prefer 15-18 wpm and straight key. I am a HAM since November 2020, shortly before the Covid madness caused the shutdown of the Bundesnetzagentur (BnetzA), who in Germany do the exam and license for HAM, I think, and started to use telegraphy from the first day, of course without really being able to. So I fiddled around until September next year, when I joined a local course here and my first real QSO I was able to do on the bands started about five months later, 19.2.2022 with my teacher Eddi. So, for me it needed five months of training and at that time, I was still very shaky on my feet, still, I survived that first QSO without any help from computers. My "first" on 9.10.2021 was impossible to do without the help of a computer of course. I tried, I tried hard, but I learned, that pure will is not enough. 😀 You have a fine fist, Jeanne, hope I hear you some time on the bands. I regularly reach the east coast of the US on the upper bands, 20, 15 or 10m, when the conds are good. Yesterday I had a 45 minute QSO with one of our next operators in training, and I am helping Eddi as an assistant with the training, from the organizational and technical side, since my course. If you have seen my page, you know, that I am very much am in love with this mode. I always wanted to learn this, since I was 10 and it was burning since I was 13 and I could hear on shortwave the ships searching for the German container ship "München" that was lost at sea shortly before Christmas that year. I could hear the Morse signals, wanted to understand what was going on, but found myself unable to make sense of the sounds, even after listening for hours and hours to them. I have this knack, to be able to listen to foreign and unknown languages for some time and then start to understand them ("The 13th Warrior"-effect), but it didn't work with Morse. I sadly didn't find your call on the RBN network. Did you ever call CQ? Tried to see, if your signal reaches Germany and when. Maybe I did some mistake. You need to go on the band with that wonderful fist of yours. Only there you really learn to use it as a language. It is about chatting, not about learning. :-D Jump into the cold water, Jeanne. It's refreshing. We have two girls from the last course, that went through all the licensing like you did and Susanne DM3SUE is hard to get off the bands now. And she gained so much self-confidence by this! It is hard to scratch me from the bands now, too. I'm not really good, but good enough. What I lack in skill, I compensate with enthusiasm and humor, when I have to laugh about my failures. If I fail, I honestly do not care. I ask AGN or ? or RPT and am using this like a language, where you often ask back. There is no shame in not getting a sentence. It is a never ending ping-pong and hard to do a QSO shorter than 20 minutes now. I usually do not waste my band-time on contests, though, 5NNTU is not why I learned this. Eddi has completely spoiled me. Haha! If you find time, try to read my short stories in Morse. That's challenging. You'll find the script nowhere, because I only published those in Morse. Was a hell of a concentration trip to send them out without a cut. If enough people like this, I'll do more of those.

Thanks, Tim!

You got it!

Uhhhhhh……no. Try again. If you want to learn Morse code, there are some awesome resources out there. One of my favorite apps that helped me is called MorseMania. I would start there. Best wishes and regards.

Ha ha. Well, it really is a joke on a bug, not a joke about a bug. A bug is a type of key used to send Morse code. It was developed as a more ergonomic alternative to traditional straight keys, which often gave the old operators repetitive motion injuries. Now you know, and I have a bonus for you. It’s a “bug” joke: What kind of fly sounds croaky when it speaks? A hoarse fly. Best regards.

You did a great job! You got it! A+. Perfect accuracy. The bug is designed for fast sending. I’ve slowed it down with an extra arm pushed forward and a weight, but without extra MacGyvering, that’s as slow as it goes. I find it’s good practice to listen to code at fast, medium and slow speeds. FB de KC1SPX

@@JeanneMartinThanks a bunch, and thanks for posting! I finally learned morse code this week! I will likely keep playing with it for a while longer, but hope to invest in a sub-$20 40m radio kit, climb a mountain, and see who I can contact at 1.8w with a wire antenna I make that will likely cost more than the radio.

Thanks for the kind words and good luck with your 40 meter plans. There’s an old saying in radio - height is might. You can do a lot with height, and it sounds like you’re on it. Keep up the good work on your CW. It takes a while to learn. I’ve been studying for a year, and I still need more practice to get to the skill level I want. Keep up the good work.

You got it! Congratulations! I’m glad you enjoyed it. Danke and 73 from KC1SPX Jeanne

TU. You are very observant. I am left handed. My bug, however, is not. I’m used to using both hands and switching between them because I play the piano - although I am better at sending CW with my left hand. No surprise there. I just use the right handed bug left handed. No problem. Not sure where you can get a used left handed model, and even new the left handed models are out of stock. Good luck and 73 de KC1SPX

Thanks. I’m glad you liked it!

Homework lol

Ha ha. No. I guess that's what over 16 years of marriage looks like. We work well together.