I guess I could say I'm a CW fan since I don't like chewing rag in SSB. For you non-hams, CW stands for Continuous Wave ( telegraphy ) and SSB stands for Single Side Band ( phone mode ).

Since the FT-100 comes with a built-in electronic keyer ( a pretty good one ), all I needed in order to be able to transmit morse code was a set of paddles.

I found some decent spring tensioned paddle sets on a hungarian ham site and planned to order one of those. I contacted the seller and found out that I had to go to the bank and make an international payment.

I went to the bank, asked around of how to do an international payment to a hungarian bank and all I got was "use Western Union". And that meant I had to make an account and pay more money than I intended to.

That's when I googled around and nicely asked my friend Csaba Csoma who relocated in the U.S to help me purchase a Kexkey ( Elecraft edition ).

Note to self : never ever again choose the Air Mail Parcel shipping option unless willing to wait two weeks for the package to arrive.

Features :

• high performance Iambic paddle
• gold plated silver contacts
• molded acrylic finger pads
• magnetic tension adjustment
• powder coated steel base
• adjustable contact spacing
• weights ~1.5Kg
• size across hex base flats ? 98 mm
• overall length - 130mm
• height - 60mm

I am extremly pleased with this paddle set. Tho a bit harder to adjust once I set the spacing and tension to suit my taste it feels like no other key I've ever had.