My New Woodratty Sideswiper

Here's my newest key (center). I cannibalized my old home-made straight key for the main piece of metal that I'd taken from a hunk of hose clamp. Than I hammered a mobile microphone clip into shape to clamp around the paddle itself, and mounted the entire thingy to the piece of 3/8 inch plywood. I also mounted my iambic paddle key to the same board (far left).

This lowered both keys to table top level to help save my wrist, as well as eliminate the "duct tape" mounting system, since now the weight of my forearm keeps the keys in place.

I wired both keys in parallel and run them both through an external keyer, so I can now switch between either key in mid QSO. The next step is to finish another hand-made straight key seen at the far right, and tie that into the jumper that exits the external keyer and plugs into the radio. The radio is set to "straight key mode" now and the external keyer handles the dits and dahs. Eventually I'll be able to use all three keys without having to mess with he radio's menu at all.

My motto is: "If it ain't 'Woodrat'... You spent too much".