Ebay CW Ham Radio Paddle Review 

Clever. I elevate the ft-891 for airflow, never occurred to me to use underside. Thanks.

There's another ham on youtube "RedSummitRF" (I think) who also reviewed this paddle, you can find it and see what he thinks. He's also reviewed a number of portable paddles. I'm still satisfied with mine.

Before you pull the trigger consider this review from a ham with a lot more portable experience than me: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-NyylS9iRreA.html One of my big takeaways from hearing about your work and Carole's presentations was that I really should have "done my homework" and got pointers from experienced educators like yourself before taking on that role with my kid, i.e that I am basically an educator with a class of 1, but same principles apply. I've gotten lucky with trial and error and probably could have avoided a lot of inertia and friction if I knew more of what you and Carole know from experience. I know a lot of ham parents who aren't sure how to create and maintain a kid's interest in the hobby, and have homeschool parent friends who don't know how to start. If you know of any "ham parent" resources for sharing "tips and tricks" and perspectives would love to hear about it, in the meantime will just piggyback off the educator outreach efforts. 73!

@@randonloebsolvingproblems4421 I know Charlie well, and have seen his video. I can't count how many videos I often watch on a product before I pull the trigger. You are right, his channel is spot on. As to the educating bit, we are working to create an 'educator' section of the ARRL Learning Center. It took many years before I finally found the right groove in teaching amateur radio in school. I went at it for 21 years, with the last three being more fruitful than the rest of them combined. Feel free to point people my way, I am more than happy to help.

I'm no expert on metal work, but my specimen seems good: no burrs, no scratches, smooth surfaces, nice brushed stainless. Other than the vertical slop (which might be fixed with small shim washers if someone were so inclined), no "flaws" from my viewpoint.

Seems just today another ham reviewed the paddle. He has a lot more experience with portable paddles so you may want to hear his take: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-NyylS9iRreA.html&ab_channel=RedSummitRF

Lol... yeah, it was after watching his review that I saw yours. You are right he is experienced and has a nice review series. I enjoyed yours as you also presented the paddle from your personal experience which was nice. Thanks again.

Did yours come with those little sharp pointed pins? I am thinking they are spare contacts but can't figure out why they're pointy....

@@randonloebsolvingproblems4421 my box had two extra pointy contacts as well. I can imagine the points on the ones that are installed by default must wear down at some point, so definitely good to have backups. IMO the points are kind of useful to have so you can tune them to be extremely close to the contact point, which removes the lag in triggering dits/dats.

@@DanMasquelier I don't think the contacts that come installed are pointy though, at least I don't think mine were. I found the travel good to go anyway.

Many ways to skin the cat, probably some ferrous nails hammered into the wood matching the spacing of the magnets would work just fine. Note there seems to be a "version 2" of this thing on ebay now but it is like twice the price and is different...doubt its worth the price versus others though: www.ebay.com/itm/125166684743?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160908105057%26meid%3Da4fe5a6c57f0454785a0ea634b5e7a80%26pid%3D100675%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D15%26sd%3D125166684743%26itm%3D125166684743%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2380057%26brand%3DUnbranded&_trksid=p2380057.c100675.m4236&_trkparms=pageci%3A6836eeb6-9b1d-11ec-953b-cad16869de8c%7Cparentrq%3A50fb345317f0ab8477381e09fff1aa7a%7Ciid%3A1

Or just remove the magnets from the bottom and run screws down into a piece of wood through those holes.

Good luck with it, the China->ebay pipeline requires both patience and luck. Let me know what you think of it, and also if yours comes with the little pointy pins in a bag, what you think they might be for. 73 KN4YRM

How long, or how many hours on it do you have?

Yes the travel adjustment comes down to personal preference. Some operators feel they can go faster with less travel distance. Others feel if it is too small they make too many errors. Often recommended to start with 2mm and get smaller over time, some feel ~1mm is good. Depends on the paddle, and whether the operator has a light touch or is a slammer. Don't overthink it.

There are some interesting fact patterns hams claim to be hearing. One is outright on-air promotion of a monetized youtube channel. Others fall into a category where the amateur's on-air operations are live-streamed or later rebroadcast on a monetized internet property. In some circumstances the "Internet famous" ham promotes the fact they'll be on a certain time and frequency ahead of time, and that contacts will have the opportunity to see/hear themselves on the monetized "live stream" or rebroadcast. Some hams seem to feel that under some of these facts and circumstances, the on-air activity loses its personal nature, and becomes commercial. I don't have strong opinions on the topic, but do find the issue and conversations surrounding it both interesting and amusing.

@@randonloebsolvingproblems4421 Thanks for sharing these observations. I will add this to the research.

@@j.d.-alawyerexplains5064 I saw the video. While I agree with your sentiment about the value added by those youtubers, I am not in complete agreement that a court would be so liberal if it ever came to that. There are specific carve outs: e.g. infrequent sale of used ham gear among hams, classes associated with a technical school, etc. Thus the old, "the drafters contemplated exceptions and didn't make one here..." argument. Indeed, while at the time of drafting perhaps RU-vid wasn't contemplated, but drafters would have known of existing "how-to" books (e.g. ARRL guides), and there is no carve-out for an author to promote his how-to-ham book, no matter how much that book "helps the ham community." Do you know if the FCC has a dept to issue non-binding (but persuasive) opinion letters, like some other federal agencies do?

P.S. Thanks for not mentioning my name or call-sign. I prefer to stay "off the radar" on these things. 73

@@randonloebsolvingproblems4421 I actually looked to see if there was a set of private letter rulings. There does not appear to be, at least, not one publicly available. It's anyone's guess as to how the FCC will deal with this, but I think as long as the defense of these issues focuses on the content of the transmissions (which is what the FCC records in these cases) and you stay away from promoting the social media aspect on air, you're probably fine.

Could it be that the stray RF has always been on the case, and you are just now noticing because it is conducting through the paddle?

@@randonloebsolvingproblems4421 not sure. But I’m checking my grounding now. It’s pretty significantly painful and possible dangerous. If it’s RF reflecting Back Maybe I need a choke!

@@SummitBidTech Definitely merits investigation. Good luck.

@@randonloebsolvingproblems4421 I changed power supplies and the issue seems resolved. I was using a Bluetti “solar generator” battery as my power supply when I felt the rf burns. It’s not grounded at all. When I switched to my mfj switching Power supply the burn stopped. Hmmm. Interesting. Could be that I had a really bad match on 160 and it was reflected power coming Back?

I did some more experimenting and could not reproduce the finger burning problem. I was definitely not imagining it. It was painful enough that I reckon it could be dangerous in some situations.