The KC8RKQ Coat-Key
A CQ Key Made From Coathangers

Ok.. So the pictures aren't of the greatest quality, but you get the idea...

I bent up a coathanger to the appropriate shape, stripped the plastic coating off of it in a few strategic spots, and soldered the common wire to it. I then put some screws in a 2x4 in the above places, added a spring, attached the dit and dah wires to two of the screws, and wallah! a CW key. It was simple to make in that it only took about 10 minutes, minus the adjustments to the spring, which took about another five minutes. The plug for the radio came with it, so that was free. The screws and lumber were left over from another project, so that was already paid for. The wire was stripped from some old CAT-5 cable which went "bad" (most likely it was an "end" that was bad) on me.

I figure it was free.

73 de KC8RKQ