American Morse Equipment MS2
American Morse Equipment MS2
“A thing of beauty”
My Father’s Day present this year was a new MS2 straight key kit from Doug Hauff at American Morse Equipment.
The MS2 is tiny, but it is incredibly well machined and has an amazing feel. It is like having a tiny German “Junker” straight key. There is absolutely no side-to-side motion with this key and it is built like a tank. The parts are CNC machined from solid aluminum and then anodized. Doug warranties his work for life (yours or his)!
The instructions are very straightforward (the manual is on the AME Web page). Once you figure out which screws go where, (there are a few different lengths) the assembly is quite quick. I chose to modify one step in the manual and soldered the cable to the solder lugs before I permanently attached the lugs to the key so as not to damage the plastic shoulder washer with heat from the soldering iron.
For a cord I used half of a pre-assembled six foot stereo audio cable. The Elecraft Rigs that I use for most of my portable operating require that any key be connected via a stereo plug. I also attached the key to a clear polycarbonate plastic base (XC-Ski Scraper) using the threaded hole in the base of the key and a matching screw from my junkbox and I added four clear stick-on rubber feet to the base.
Many thanks to Pete, W1PNS for blogging about this little key and answering my questions about his experiences with it.
Sunday, July 8, 2012