It had become a problem.
Morse Keys are lovely items. You have to admire the precision engineering. They are just a switch. Paddles are two switches. But nice switches. Switches worth collecting.
Over the decades I have bought Morse Keys. I would see them at rallies, on eBay, at Ham Radio shops. And I would buy them. I did have this plan to have at least one QSO with every key, and I wanted a display cabinet to show them off in my shack. This never happened.
I kept them all in a box, apart from the daily driver that is a Kent single paddle. I never did get the hang of the squeeze keying iambic process. The Vibroplex semi automatic is a complete mystery, how the heck do you use one of those? Incidentally if you ever go to one of the speed competitions, or watch them on YouTube, all the really fast operators use a single paddle, so I am in good company. Or they are in bad company, take your pick.
Recently we moved out of our bungalow, knocked most of it down, and re-built it. No really, we totally rebuilt our house. This rebuilding means, for the first time ever, I get to have a room that I can use as a shack. When we moved back in my XYL asked what was in the heavy box labelled keys.
"What sort of keys?"
I opened the box and produced a nice straight brass key, circa 1945. She looked inside the box.
"How many have you got?"
I didn't actually know. She counted them. Thirty one.
The one I had shown her still had the price tag on it. £45. You can see where this is going... Actually XYL is incredibly tolerant of my bizarre hobbies.
"Are all of them worth £45?" She picked up the Vibroplex. "£245!"
I really should have removed the price tags, just for the aesthetics.
Long story short; I had 31 keys, collected over 40 years.
I have used, at most, five of them.
I also had a hankering for a 100 watt 'shack in the box'.
A few weeks later I went to my favourite Ham Radio emporium, put the box of keys on the counter, and had a deal with them. I walked out with a Yaesu FT991A radio and a few other bits. Plus a new cap!
I kept my favourite Kent single paddle.
Old habits die hard. A while back I bought a Chinese twin paddle, a bargain new at £75. It's still in it's box. One day I'll have another go at iambic squeeze keying.
Best Wishes
Ron
G4LMN