New straight key impressions

Saturday January 6th was the Twelfth Day of Christmas. Since I've grown up, this day which is the Feast of the Epiphany, is also known as "Little Christmas". This is the day Christians celebrate the visit of the Magi to the manger in Bethlehem. In many eastern Christian cultures, THIS is the day for celebration and gift giving.

It was an appropriate day, then, that the USPS delivered my LTA SKCC straight key from Morse Express in Denver, CO. This was the straight key that my wife Marianne had given to me as a Christmas gift.

It is a beautiful key! Since I already own an LTA Cootie key, I had an idea of what the quality of this key would be even before it arrived. I was not disappointed. The construction is beautiful; and the 18K gold plating makes this instrument shine.

But this key has what it takes beyond good looks. I was able to adjust it to my preferred settings quite easily. I like the contact gap to be just a titch wider than the thickness of a few pieces of paper. I get a more positive sense of key closure this way, without it being so wide that using the key becomes tiresome. Same thing goes for spring tension. I like the key to be tensioned so that the key opens very easily; but at the same time, it doesn't take me a whole lot of effort to close the contact. That would make for choppy dits and is unacceptable to me.

The bottom line is the key looks wonderful and operates the same way. There is a distinct but gentle "clackiness" in using the key that is pleasant and doesn't become bothersome. The engraving of the Staright Key Century Club logo on the key's arm was done quite well. Mine also has the engraved serial number "33", meaning it was the 33rd key maunfactured in however long the SKCC series lasts.

The only problem now is that I see LTA offers a bug that would match this key perfectly ...............

73 de Larry W2LJ