My mobile/portable paddle
Initially,
I was looking for a small iambic paddle for CW operation in portable
and
also in mobile (well, not while driving !). I finally
found what seemed to be, at least from my point of view, the ideal
paddle on G4ZPY web site: the
"Miniature 3 in 1 iambic twin paddle key". This paddle seemed
perfect
in size, looked particularly nice and had excellent reviews from
various
users on the net. I immediatelly contacted Gordon, G4ZPY, to ordered
one, and I
started to wait. I knew it would take quite a long time because Gordon
was quite busy and had some health issues.
After a long time, I simply thought that I would never get it, so I decided to make one iambic twin paddle myselfand I choose to design it close to G4ZPY model. However, to make it easier to built, I slightly increased the size by a factor 1.2, mainly to adapt to the metric system bolts I planned to use.
It took me about two months to build it from scratch. In the end, I was quite happy with the result not only because it was looking not so bad, but also because it was working much better than my HiMoud iambic twin paddle key. I would even say it works almost as good as my Bencher (I said almost !).
From that day, I started using it quite regularly in portable operation and sometimes in mobile (the magnetic base allows to put in on a metal knee attachmentof an old J-45 straight key).
... but the story does not end here ...
One year and a half latter, the postman knocked at the door and had a parcel for me. Quite strange, I was not remembering ordering something recently. The size of the parcel and the fact that it was coming from UK rang an old bell in my mind but I was not really believing it. I opened the box ... and I discovered my Miniature 3 in 1 iambic twin paddle key with my call sign engraved on it ! My greatefull thanks again to Gordon for this very nice job.
Just for comparison, here are few pictures of this "3 in 1" paddle. The Bencher gives some idea about the size of this tiny paddle. However, the pleasure it provides when using it is inversely proportional to its size !
