I’ve had a few messages of late asking how I generate my WSJT-X log web pages for my website. The answer is pretty simple, I use a little BASH script that I started writing some time back and have gradually improved over the last few months.
If you have a PC running Linux or a RaspberryPi running any of the normal Debian/Ubuntu/Redhat/Fedora based Linux distro’s that are available today then, this script should work just fine.
I originally wrote this program using Python but, a friend of mine bet me that I couldn’t write it in BASH and so, I took up the challenge and this is the result. It’s pretty simple and uses all the normal UNIX command line goodies like grep, sed and awk.
The script also uses WWL to calculate the distance between two Maidenhead locator grid squares and so it’s important to have it installed before running the script. (The script checks for it at runtime and will exit if it is not installed!). You can install WWL using your package manager on your Linux distro or from the command line directly. Details are in the READ-ME.txt file.
Screen grab from my M0AWS WSJT-X Log web page
It’s important that you READ the READ-ME.txt included in the zip file before trying to run any of the scripts included as it details the variables that you need to enter values for to make the script run on your PC/Server. (Example entries are in place as supplied).
The variables are mainly just paths to files on your system and whether you want distances calculated in miles or kilometres. Other than that there’s nothing else required for it to run.
I’ve also included details on how to run the script automatically from a crontab so that your webpage can be updated automatically every few minutes/hours etc.
The script also includes code to add a PNG map file into the generated webpage so that there is a graphical representation of all your QSOs. The map isn’t generated by the script (something I need to add in the coming few months) so you’ll need to generate it yourself and then add it to the website either via the crontab script included in the zip file or manually.
I use the QSOMap website to generate my map image files and then have them uploaded to my web server via the crontab script.
The script processes 100 entries per second on my web server (Headless virtual machine running Ubuntu Server 64bit Edition) and so should be pretty fast on most PCs. It will run somewhat slower on a RaspberryPi so be patient!
You can download the script and associated information using the button below.
To celebrate Her Majesty the Queen Platinum Jubilee, marking 70 years of service to the people of the United Kingdom, the Realms and the Commonwealth, U.K. Radio Amateur (HAM) operators can apply for a Notice of Variation (NOV) to use the Q Regional Secondary Locator.
The RSGB will also be operating a bunch of GB70 special event stations, full details on the GB70 website.
I have my NOV and will be on air using MQ0AWS for the whole of June 2022.
This callsign will operate for one month only and so will be a rare one for you to get in your log.
I will be operating on all HF bands 160-10m CW & FT4/8 and maybe some SSB depending on conditions.
All MQ0AWS logs will be uploaded to my website almost realtime and will be uploaded to EQSL at the end of June 2022.
Screenshot showing WFView, FLRig and FLDigi all working wirelessly with my IC-705
In my “IC-705 Going Wireless with Apple Mac Computers” article I came across an issue whereby I couldn’t enter the correct path into FLRig to get the application to talk to WFView for CAT control of the IC-705 radio. I’m glad to say that I have now resolved this issue and detail it below.
Upon further inspection it appears that WFView uses a different /dev/ttys00x port each time it is started. It seems to round robin on ports 001 to 006. It’s quite clever in that it doesn’t actually directly use the port, each time the WFView app is started it creates a softlink to the next port after the one it last used.
The softlink is created with the same name each time the app is started but, it just points to the next /dev/ttys00x port available.
In my WFView setup I selected the first virtual serial port in the drop down list and so this soft link (AKA Symbolic link) gets created each time the WFView app is started.
Above soft link used by WFView (Replace “username” with your username)
The problem with FLRig is that it won’t allow you to type in this path to the serial port field, it only has a drop down list that doesn’t include this path.
The way around this is to edit the settings file IC-705.prefs in the .flrig folder in your home directory and manually enter the path to the correct field.
In the file there is an entry that starts with xcvr_serial_port: you just need to add the long path from WFView after the colon on the same line as shown below.
NOTE: Change username to your username as shown in the virtual serial port field in the WFView settings tab.
Once you’ve edited the file, save and close it and then start WFView and let it connect to the IC705 and then start FLRig. You’ll find it now connects to WFView directly and gains CAT control of the radio without issue.
You shouldn’t need to ever edit the IC-705.prefs file again as the settings are stored permanently. It should just work each time you start the FLRig app.
To get the frequency display on FLDigi just go into settings and switch on the FLRig CAT control, it will get all the data from FLRig and present it as shown in the screenshot above.
Since getting my Icom IC-705 I’ve had problems with computer noise causing interference when connected via USB. I solved the problem mostly by winding both the USB and coax cables around 240-31 ferrite toroids. This resolved the problem nicely on all HF bands except 10m. With further investigation I realised that the 240-31 ferrite toroid doesn’t provide much choking resistance at 28mhz and so a 240-43 would be better for the higher bands. This would mean I’d need a longer USB cable and coax to the AH-705 so that there was enough cable to wind around two ferrite toroids to cover all the HF bands.
Whilst this will almost certainly provide a complete solution to the problem there is of course another way around this issue. The IC-705 is a rare beast in that it has wifi capability built in. The wifi on the IC-705 is capable of operating in one of two different modes, Access Point (AP) and Station, a host on an existing wifi network.
Since I connected my IC-705 to my in-shack wifi I am using the radio in station mode for connectivity via wifi. By connecting it this way my MacBook Pro will also have access to the internet at the same time as connecting to the radio giving me the best of both worlds.
You can of course put the radio into AP mode and connect your computer directly to it via wifi however, you won’t have any internet access from the computer as it will be connected directly to the radio. This is how it will be used when in the field for portable operations unless you have a portable 3/4/5g wifi router.
Getting the radio connected to my shack wifi was easy, just go into the IC-705 menus, switch the WLAN on, pick the SSID of my wifi router and enter the password, the radio connects immediately. You will also need to switch on the network control option and also set up a user and password that is used when connecting to the radio from your computer. Refer to the IC-705 manual on how to do this if you haven’t done it already.
To be able to use the radio wirelessly from any Apple Mac computer you will need 2 applications, WFview and Blackhole. Both of these applications are Opensource Software, I’m a huge fan of Opensource Software and have over the years been involved in a number of opensource projects.
I’m fully aware that there is an application called SDR Control available on the Apple App Store for around £90.00 that can be used instead to connect to the IC-705 wirelessly however, I prefer to use Opensource software where possible.
Before proceeding with the instructions below make sure you have an up to date backup of your system. This installation and configuration shouldn’t cause any issues at all, it worked fine on my MacBook Pro but, it’s always best to backup before you install more complex software like this.
First you need to download WFView from the Download page, make sure to download the MacOS Universal package which was v1.1 at the time writing this article. Do **not** install WFView yet, the sequence of installation is important!
WFView Download page showing the MacOS (Universal) Package v1.1
Next download the Blackhole Virtual Audio Cable application from the download page. You will need to enter an email address and your name to be able to download the application. It’s not clear how much email/spam will be sent to you but, you will need to get at least one email to obtain the download link with the authorisation code in it.
Once you’ve entered the information and submitted it you will get an email with a URL enclosed, click the URL and goto the download page. On the page there are 3 options available for download, select the “Blackhole 2 Ch” option only. At the time of writing this v0.2.10 was the current version available.
Blackhole Download page showing the 3 options available
Once downloaded you need to install the Blackhole application first as it will create the necessary virtual audio cable for WFView to use to provide sound to WSJT-X and other digital mode applications. Installation is simple and follows the normal MacOS installation process. Double click the installation package and follow the prompts accordingly.
Once installed reboot your Apple computer to make sure it starts up OK with the new kernel module installed. When your system comes back up, login and open the “Audio Midi Setup” application. (The Midi app is in Applications >> Utilities)
Once the application opens you should see that you have a new audio device called “Blackhole 2ch”. On both the Input and Output tabs set the format to 48,000Hz. This setting will get the best results when using applications like WSJT-X for FT4/8 digital modes.
Apple Audio Midi Setup showing 48,000Hz selected
Leave everything else as default setting in the Audio Midi App, nothing else needs changing. Leave the Master volume at the default max as levels are controlled from the other apps.
Once you’ve set the 48,000Hz on the two tabs quit the audio midi app as it’s no longer required.
Next you need to copy the WFView app that you downloaded into the Applications folder on your Mac. Once in the applications folder you can create a shortcut to it on the dock by dragging and dropping the app icon onto your dock bar.
Next goto your IC-705 and go into the WLAN settings and make a note of the IP Address assigned to the radio from your wifi router. You will need this IP Address later.
At this point you are half way to having wireless control of your IC-705.
Start the WFView application and goto the settings tab.
The following settings need to be made:
1: Set Data Mod Input to LAN
2: Click the Connect Over LAN radio button.
3:Enter the IP Address from your IC-705 into the Radio IP Address field.
4: Make sure Radio Control Port is set to 50001
5: Enter the Username you configured on your IC-705 into the Username field
6: Enter the Password you configured on your IC-705 into the Password Field
7: Set Sample Rate to 48000
8:Set Audio Output and Input fields to BlackHole 2ch
9: Select the first option available in the Virtual Serial Port field. This should be as shown below:
Leave all other settings as default and click Save Settings and then Exit Program.
You must exit the application in order to restart it with all the new settings.
WFView Settings tab showing all the necessary settings whilst connected to the radio
Start the WFView application again and goto the Settings tab. Click on the Connect Button.
Once it has connected to the radio you will see the RX Latency details etc on the bottom right of the window. Click on the View tab and you should now have an active waterfall.
At this point you have full control of your IC-705 wirelessly. Have a play with the application and get familiar with it.
Fully operational WFView connected to my IC-705 receiving FT8 on 10m
Once I had WFView operational I set about getting WSJT-X connected to the radio wirelessly. This is actually really simple to do and just needs a couple of changes to the settings to make it work.
Start up the WSJT-X application and goto the Radio Settings tab. On this page you need to set the radio to IC-705, serial port to that shown below (Also shown in point 9 in the WFView section above) and Baud Rate to 38400.
Next select the WSJT-X Audio Settings tab and set the soundcard Input/Output fields to Blackhole 2ch. Set both Input and Output to Mono as shown below.
WSJT-X Audio settings
Click OK and return to the WSJT-X main screen. You should now be fully operational for WSJT-X digital modes.
WSJT-X transmitting through WFView to the IC-705
Once I’d made a few contacts with WSJT-X in FT8 mode I went on to try and get FLDigi working with WFView as well.
Unfortunately at the moment I cannot get CAT control working in either FLDigi or FLRig, neither will accept the /dev/ttys000 as the serial device however, I was able to get the audio working into FLDigi and even decoded some morse with it. I need to do little more work to fathom out why the CAT control doesn’t work in these two applications. I’m sure there is a way to resolve this but, I just need to put in a little more time to find the solution.
FLDigi decoding Morse code via WFView
UPDATE: There was some concern in one of the IC-705 Facebook groups that Blackhole wouldn’t work after a MacOS update. I’ve just upgraded my Macbook Pro to MacOS 11.6.6 and BlackHole is still fully functional afterwards. The MacOS update has no effect on the BlackHole service whatsoever. So you can rest easy!
Since getting my Icom IC-705 I’ve had a constant issue with interference on the HF bands from the USB connection on the radio when the AH-705 remote auto ATU is connected.
If I use the radio without the AH-705 inline there is no issue at all but, as soon as the AH-705 is connected to the radio there is some 9 S points of computer data noise across all the HF bands rendering them unusable.
Reading online this appears to be a common issue and so I set about trying to find a resolution.
The noise is most likely being induced onto the outer braid of the screen on the cables and so I decided to look into making a common mode choke.
Visiting the HAM Goodies website I ordered a couple of FT240-31 Ferrite Toroids as I’d read this particular mix is ideal for making common mode chokes.
USB Cable wrapped around a FT240-31 Ferrite Toroid to create a choke
I wrapped a long USB cable around the toroid and used some tape to hold the cable in place, it’s surprising how much length is lost by simply wrapping around what looks like a very small toroid.
Firing up the radio the noise was reduced considerably but, it was still there and so I decided to do the same to the coaxial cable between the AH-705 and the IC-705.
Coaxial cable between AH-705 and IC-705 wrapped around a FT240-31 Ferrite Toroid
Once I’d wrapped the coax around the toroid and reconnected the coax between the radio and ATU I was pleased to see that the computer data noise was now gone on all bands except for the 10m band. For some reason the 10m band interference is still as strong as it was without the toroids in place.
I’m not too sure why this is. I tried more and less turns on the toroid to no avail and so eventually I decided to just live with it for the time being.
At least now I can use 160m -> 12m without any interference whatsoever, a massive improvement on what I had before.
I need to do some more research on the different mixes of the ferrite toroids and perhaps trying a different mix will resolve the problem on the 10m band too.
Operating a QRP station can often make you feel like you’re not getting out when no one responds to your multiple CQ calls. This was the case the other day when I was trying out my new to me Begali Traveler Light morse key.
I was on the 20m band calling and calling to no avail, the band was open as I could hear other stations just fine so I knew there was traffic on the band. The SWR on my EFHW Vertical was perfect as it always is and so I knew there wasn’t a problem with the coax/antenna combination.
Wanting to know if my signal was indeed going anywhere I decided to make use of the SeeMe facility on the DXCluster that I use. The SeeMe facility effectively allows you to enable spots for your own callsign from the Reverse Beacon Network (RBN).
The SeeMe facility is easily switched on by issuing the set/seeme command on the DXCluster of your choice. Once enabled you will start to see spots for your own callsign from the RBN every time you call CQ using CW.
RBN Spots for M0AWS calling CQ on the 20m Band
As you can see above, I was clearly getting out very well with some great signal reports from a good spread of stations even though I was only using 5w of CW.
You can of course use the RBN website to view the spots if you prefer, it’s not quite as realtime as the DXCluster but, it provides the same information eventually.
M0AWS spots on the RBN Website
The view on the RBN Website is almost the same as that from the DXCluster however, it also shows your CW speed in WPM. I was also surprised to get a spot from the USA at 8dB, that’s a good signal (Just over S2) considering I was only using 5w of power.
I came to the conclusion that no one needed an exotic M0 call for their log and so I went on to my normal search and pounce approach and worked a bunch of stations spread around Europe and Asiatic Russia. My little 5w signal did well and I was able to get through the pileups by using my slide off to the side technique so that my little signal stood out on it’s own. This technique works well when trying to get a QRP signal into a pileup and is used often.
Needless to say, my Begali Traveler Light twin paddle morse key once setup how I like it was superb to use, light to the touch, quick and responsive. Begali make such beautiful morse keys!
Since purchasing my Begali Pearl twin paddle morse key I’ve been looking to get another Begali for my IC-705 portable setup. Going portable means I need a key that isn’t super shiny like the Pearl, something a little more hardy would be ideal.
I was looking to buy the Begali Simplex Basic directly from Begali as it would be ideal for portable operations however, my lovely wife spotted another Begali key for sale on Ebay and pinged the details over to me to take a look at.
Begali Traveler Light
To my surprise the key for sale on Ebay was a Begali Traveler Light, the perfect key for portable use and at a much lower price than new.
I contacted the seller immediately asking a couple of questions about the key and got an immediate response, always a good sign!
It turned out that the key was being sold by Wallace, MM0AMV up in Scotland. Looking at his QRZ page it’s clear he’s an avid CW fan as he has two Begali keys. This was backed up by the conversation we had via Ebay messaging.
In no time at all I had paid the £170.00 including postage and was the owner of my second Begali morse key.
My Begali Traveler Light Morse Key #904
The key was in as new condition as described by Wallace, clearly it had been looked after well.
It didn’t take long for me to get it hooked up to my IC-705 and on air. After a little adjustment of the gap and return tension I had the key setup comfortably for my weird left-handed use.
The key isn’t anywhere as near as heavy as my Begali Pearl key but, it’s plenty heavy enough to stop it moving around when in use. This is of course is helped by the two fold out legs that stabilise the key firmly during use but, protect the paddles solidly when in transit. It’s a great design and a very unique approach to making a fairly light but, solid twin paddle for portable usage.
In the garden with my Begali Traveler Light and IC-705 connected to my EFHW Vertical for 20m
Once folded the key takes very little space in the IC-705 portable case and completes the setup nicely. IC-705 radio, AH-705 remote auto ATU, Begali Traveler Light, tripod and a few interconnect cables, the perfect portable station.
IC-705 Portable station case with plenty of space for future additions
Since purchasing the IC-705 I’ve found that I’ve hardly used my Yaesu FTDX10, which is strange considering the receiver, filtering, DSP and APF combination is considerably better on the FTDX10 than it is on the IC-705. The IC-705 has a much nicer, easier to use user interface and it’s just a lot of fun to use even though it’s only a QRP rig. I can see me having many happy hours on air with this QRP station.
Since purchasing my new Begali Pearl morse key I’ve been wanting to install the 300hz CW filter into my Yaesu FTDX10. The radio comes standard from the factory with the 500z CW filter preinstalled however, being able to narrow the bandwidth down even further will help to reduce the ringing effect on noisy bands that often plaques CW Ops when trying to catch those very weak DX signals.
Since I had built up some free credit at ML&S by buying all my new radio equipment I decided to put it to good use and put it towards the cost of the optional 300hz filter for the radio.
In years past when I had a Yaesu FT1000MP I installed a full set of filters in it and it made quite a difference DXing on the 160/80/40m bands. Back then things like digital noise reduction (DNR) were in their infancy and so narrow filters were even more important than they are today.
Yaesu XF-130CN 300hz CW Filter for the FTDX10
The FTDX10 300hz filter looked very similar to the ones I fitted in the FT1000MP and it doesn’t look like they’ve changed at all over the years.
Yaesu XF-130CN 300hz CW Filter
Removing the cover from the FTDX10 it’s immediately apparent where the filter goes. A neat little cutout in the RF shield draws your eye immediately to the spot.
Cutout in the RF shield for the optional 300hz filter
Fitting the filter is easy enough however, you do have to take care to move the little black wire to one side otherwise it gets caught under the filter and stops it from seating properly onto its connections. There’s not a lot of slack on the wire either so care is needed to not pull it too taught.
Note the black wire on the right hand site of the connections for the 300hz filter
I was surprised to see how small the standard 500hz filter is in comparison to the optional 300hz filter.
Optional 300hz filter next to the factory fitted 500hz filter
With the filter safely in position and seated perfectly I had the cover and 9 screws back on in no time at all and then got the radio powered up to check if the menu system had the option of a 300hz filter in CW mode.
FTDX10 CW filter menu with 300hz option
Getting on air the filter makes quite a difference to the amount of background noise when listening to weak DX stations. Adding DNR and APF to the equation removes all background noise completely with the 300hz filter making it possible to hear the weakest of CW stations and complete silence in-between.
The bands aren’t in particularly good shape today however, I tuned around on the 20m band and found W7SW in Phoenix Arizona calling CQ. He wasn’t particularly strong but, it was a good opportunity to experience the difference between the filters without any DNR or APF enhancement.
Short video showing difference between 500hz and 300hz filters with W7SW calling CQ
Unfortunately W7SW disappeared before I could make another short video with the DNR and APF on to show the difference. I’ll revisit this again soon and get some video snippets up showing the difference the optional 300hz filter makes with DNR and APF.
I spent the evening/early morning trying some FT8 on the 40m band taking advantage of the grey line and night time propagation. It’s been a while since I’ve stayed up late to catch some DX on 40m and it brought back memories of the all nighters I used to do when I was on air as F5VKM in France.
The 40m band has always been one of my favourites, there’s always great DX to be had when the band is open and on the grey line the world really is your oyster.
I’ve always been a huge fan of CW on 40m, there are some great seasoned op’s on the band and it’s always a real pleasure to QSO with them on the key. This time I decided to see what could be achieved with FT8 and 22w of power from my Yaesu FTDX10, a combination that should give me global reach.
Setting up at just past 6pm on May 9th 2022 the band was already busy with European stations, lots of them! There was no room to squeeze in and call CQ, the FT8 section of the band was packed with signals filling the allocation completely with many calling over the top of each other.
I decided to take my normal stance of search and pounce to get the stations I want to work rather than just working the masses endlessly.
I initially worked a bunch of Russian stations ranging from 1200 to 2200 miles out, good distances were easily achievable even though we were still in full daylight.
My home-brew multi-band vertical antenna worked well on 40m
In amongst the throng of FT8 stations I spotted UN3P, Vladimir in Karaganda Kazakhstan, not a country I have worked a lot since getting back on air and at 3013 miles it’s a good distance to achieve on 40m whilst still in broad daylight.
I gave a call to his CQ and he came straight back with an SNR report of -20dB, I sent him a report of -12dB so there was some 8dB difference between us. Considering I was only using 22w of power in broad daylight I was happy with the report. Of course I’ve no idea how much power he was using but, my signal was 6.63mW/Mile, not the lowest I ever had but, not the biggest either.
I worked a bunch more RA9/UB9 stations in the 2000-3000 mile range and then started hearing the Australian stations on the early grey line. Initially their signals were suffering some deep QSB but, it wasn’t long until their signals were constant and stable.
All the stations that heard M0AWS 09/05/22 – 10/05/22 on 40m
Ian, VK3VDX in Victoria was the first station from Oz in the log at -19dB/-20dB, pretty even SNR reports. At 10451 miles it equates to 2.10mW/Mile.
Closely following was John, VK5PO in Mallala South Australia, much stronger signals this time at -10dB/-14dB, 2.19mW/mile over a total distance of 10028 miles.
VK5PO Mallala South Australia
As darkness replaced light the propagation swung west with east coast USA and Canadian stations dropping in to the East coast of the U.K.
John, VO1BE was the first north American station in the log with -1dB/+1dB SNR reports. To be +1dB in Canada with just 22w really is quite impressive. I’m guessing he has a very low background noise level.
I worked a bunch of East Coast USA stations and then PY2GZ popped up on the waterfall. From my QTH I have a clear view South East to South West across flat ground for miles and so it’s normally pretty easy to work stations in that zone and this evening was no different. First call was answered and -10dB/-17dB SNR reports were exchanged, 3.68mW/mile over 5965 miles.
My 14.81m tall home brew vertical works superbly on the 40m band with tuning handled by my CG3000 Remote Auto Tuner. This is actually my 30m band EFHW vertical antenna but, removing the 49:1 Unun and replacing it with the CG3000 has made this antenna much more versatile.
CG3000 Remote Auto Tuner connected to the 14.81m vertical antenna and ground system
The next station in the log was BG0BBB in Xinjiang China with -9dB/-18dB SNR reports exchanged. China is always a hard location for me to get into for some reason so, I was glad to get another Chinese HAM into the log.
BG0BBB Xinjiang China
As the propagation started to swing westerly I got 8P4JP in Bridgetown Barbados into the log. It took a few calls to get the exchange completed due to very deep QSB between us but, with some perseverance the contact was completed successfully and I had a new one in the log!
I continued to work a flurry of East Coast USA, Brazilian and Puerto Ricon stations one after the other until suddenly stations from the east started coming in again.
First from the east was Igor, 4L1FL from Tbilisi Georgia, another new one for me that somehow seems to escape me every time I come across Georgian stations on the bands.
4L1FL Tbilisi Georgia
UN7JO in Ust-Kamenogorsk Kazakhstan was loud with me at -5dB SNR although I only got -21dB SNR back, some 16dB difference across the path of 3386 Miles.
One station of particular interest was VY0MEL, Julien in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut Northern Canada. This is the most northern Canadian station I’ve worked in a long time and it was great to get him in the log. His QRZ page is worth a read, he works at a mine in Nunavut on a 14 day rotation and so has a fair bit of time for HAM radio. Using just a dipole that is strung between two shipping containers and only 60cm above the snow in the centre he was a good signal at -19dB here in the U.K, especially considering he was still in broad daylight.
VY0MEL Rankin Inlet, Nunavut Northern Canada
Needless to say I had a fun filled evening/early morning on the 40m band, once again it didn’t disappoint and I got a couple of new countries in the log. I think the next late night will have to be a CW evening on 40m to see how well I do in comparison.
The full list of stations worked over 9th-10th May 2022 using FT8 on the 40m band can be viewed in my WSJT-X log in glorious technicolour with distances and mW/mile figures for every contact.
Map showing all FT4/FT8 stations worked up to 10/05/22 all bands
After my disappointment with the Vine RST-TP1 twin paddle that I bought and subsequently returned to Martin Lynch and Sons due to the poor build quality and finish I continued my hunt for a morse key.
During my conversation with Tony, the sales manager at ML&S one thing he did say to me was that if I was really serious about morse code then there really was only one key to buy these days, a Begali from Italy.
Morse Code has always been my main mode ever since I passed my 12wpm morse test and obtained my M0AWS A class licence, it’s a mode I dearly love and get a huge amount of pleasure from. (It also helps to keep the little grey cells alive in retirement!)
So without delay I googled the Begali website and started looking at their offerings.
Begali do a fine range of twin paddle keys starting from €131.00 +VAT and shipping right up to almost €700+VAT and shipping, far more than I wanted to spend.
Having spent almost £180.00 inc VAT and shipping for the Vine RST-TP1 and being extremely disappointed with it I decided to spend a little more to ensure I bought something of quality that was going to last.
My Begali Pearl with Palladium base, gold top and red paddles, a thing of beauty
A couple of weeks after ordering the key arrived hassle free, a miracle considering the hassle Brexit has caused with import and export of goods between the U.K. and Europe.
Bruna at Begali assured me that they had a system in place that takes care of all the import taxes etc and that the delivery process would be smooth and trouble free, and indeed it was!
Upon opening the box I was taken by the sheer beauty of the key, beautifully finished, perfectly put together and well engineered. I knew this was going to be a pleasure to use before I’d even touched the paddles!
My Begali Pearl Twin Paddle Morse Key
Being left handed I’ve had to setup both my Yaesu FTDX10 and Icom IC-705 such that the dit and dah are reversed on the paddles but, once done I felt at home with the key very quickly.
Having been out of the hobby for some 15 years my morse is a little rusty so I set about doing a fair bit of listening before trying to work stations. To my surprise I was soon decoding stations at 20wpm in my head albeit with a little more thought than it used to take but, accurate enough to have a go at working a few stations.
Working CW stations on 20m with the Begali Pearl Twin Paddle and Icom IC-705
Using the key is pure delight, it’s light to the touch, responsive, infinitely adjustable, comfortable and a joy to use. I knew right away that I had made the right decision.
At 1.7kg it’s a heavy key which ensures it doesn’t move around the desk no matter how hard you lean on it. I find the key really relaxing to use as it only needs a gentle touch to bring the contacts together. Adjustment is super accurate thanks to the very fine threaded adjuster screws that have been beautifully machined.
It’s clear from the moment you get a Begali Pearl out of the box that it has been made with care and pride, something that is a rarity today.
Laser engraving on the Begali Pearl Twin Paddle Morse Key
I’ve decided that this key is going to be my main station key and will spend most of it’s life connected to my Yaesu FTDX10 radio, that means I need another key to go into my portable case with my IC-705. I’ve already made the decision what it’s going to be, of course it’ll be another Begali, the Simplex Basic Twin Paddle.
I’ll be putting the order in very soon Bruna!
More soon ….
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