My morse code skills suck. REALLY REALLY Suck!!. I passed my morse exams in the mid – late 1990’s and then only just. I did enough to qualify for the exam. And have never actually had a morse QSO on ham radio. I do use morse today. I use it to decode beacons and ID repeaters. But that is the extent of my morse.I didn’t own a morse key either, until now.

I asked around for a cheap and easy morse key for the ft817, just because having morse when out doing sota might save a summit if contacts are hard to manage, and with QRP, it should provide more contacts normally. It will take some time to get up to speed again, but i’ve never lost the morse, just not used it.

A couple of people pointed me to this simple and small device that plugs into the side of the FT817 and works well. The Dinkey817. This device is small, simple and cheap.

I ordered the device from Fred KH6HQC on his website on the 23rd October, with exchange rates it cost me $35 posted. It arrived in Melbourne Monday 4th November in a small padded envelope.

The device is very well constructed, an RJ45 plug has the required wires and a machined stub, the copper “paddles” contact this machined stub, adjustments are simply made by bending the arms to the desired position. It snugly fits into the 817 microphone socket with a click, and is easy to use. Thakns Fred.

Now I have no excuse but to spend some time practicing and improving my morse skills, i can use this on our big outback camping trip mid next year and on upcoming sota summits. Who knows, I may even get so keen ill enter the CQWW CW contest (not!)

And a small video of my really bad morse skill!
http://youtu.be/sPdxkLYIiag