Homebrew Legstrap Mount for Palm Paddle
Total cost was about $10 CAN.
I used a Stainless steel XC Ski scraper as the base and drilled a small hole at each corner to attach the nylon webbing via 4-40 hardware (screws, washers, nuts). When doing this, don't forget to "mark" the drilling locations with a nail and hammer or some other method, otherwise the drill bit will wander a lot !
The webbing came with buckles already on it as it was designed as a strap for a climbers chalk bag. I just had to trim the length with scissors and heat the cut edge with a lighter to keep it from fraying. (Remember to keep a bit of extra length in case you decide to take up competitive speed skating or cycling ;-) ) I used the drilled scraper as a template to drill through the nylon webbing and then used an old soldering iron to open and cauterize the holes. I recommend putting locktite or clear nail polish on the nuts to keep the hardware from falling apart on the trail.
It is also worth mentioning that XC Ski Scrapers by their very nature have sharp edges and the last thing you need in your pack is a sharp piece of steel so I used a file to take the corners and edges off the scraper so that resulting base is less of a weapon and then smoothed things out with a bit of emery paper.
The magnets supplied as an option to the Palm Paddle base do a very good job of keeping the paddle in place. The nice thing about using a magnet mount is that you can angle the paddle to suit your tastes. This should also work with other paddles with a magnetic base such as the Paddlette, although I have personally found that their magnets are a bit iffy.
The shiny stainless steel base can also double as an emergency signal mirror !
Legstrap Doubles as a Mount for Elecraft KX1
KX1 Mounted on right leg, with reversed KXPD1 for sending with left hand.
Why just mount the paddle when you can mount the whole rig? It occurred to me that this mount might make a stable platform to mount my Elecraft KX1. After considering a number of options, including something that attached to the KX1 and used Rare-earth magnets to hold it to the mount, I finally settled on a Brocoli Elastic. You know what these are, the fat elastic bands that hold Brocoli and other produce together! It yields a surprisingly stable and secure base for the rig and frees up your hands for logging when you are not sending.
Note that if you wear a down-filled coat, or something with thick sleeves, this can also double as a forearm mount for the KX1 for winter Pedestrian Mobile operation. Alternately you could use it to attach a small notebook to your arm, as a platform for logging, similar to the setup that Paul, W0RW uses.
