Beauty and the Beast

It is often said that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder". And I suppose that is very, very true. I took a look at this on e-bay and my immediate reaction was, ""Ewwwwwwwww" !!!

The picture is tiny and really doesn't do it justice (or perhaps it does); but in my humble opinion, this has got to be one of the homliest straight keys that I have ever seen!  That knob is just ...... just ...... I don't know what! The key is being listed at $9.00 and for $8.00 more you can have it shipped from Odessa, Ukraine to your front door.

There are four available so hurry up boys, get 'em while they're hot!  I doubt that Mr. Begali or the folks over at Junker, Hi-Mound or GHD are losing too much sleep over this one.

All kidding aside (and I really am just kidding), from the looks of it, the construction looks to be mostly plastic.  I doubt it weighs very much and it would have to be clamped down in some matter of fashion in order for it to work well.  Hey, for all I know, it might have the greatest mechanical action since Rolex - but it sure isn't what you'd call "eye candy".  Although, at that price, you might consider it "wallet candy".

This coming weekend is the ARRL DX Contest.  Currently, as I type this, the SFI is at 111 and there are about 60 freckles Ol' Sol's surface.  I hope the promising conditions last into the weekend with no further disruptive CMEs or solar flares.   I certainly would like to get a few DX QSOs into the log with 5 Watts.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!