It s nice and crisp i like mine a lot i m sorry to take so long to describe a problem that s caused by a few thousands of an inch of mis alignment.
Bencher by 1 review.
The iambic bencher by 1 doesn t have this design problem and a little bit of unflatness doesn t bother it.
The by 1 was damaged in a recent move so it was time to shop for something a little more modern.
States on the old ameco straight key and used it for a few late night ragchews it had become.
The heavy steel bases and and non skid feet keep it in place while operating.
Tony offers different oto spacing down to 1 2 which i found to be about perfect.
As a long time user of the by 1 bencher paddles think 32 years i ve always wanted to try a higher end key.
It features adjustable contact spacing and tension.
Self adjusting needle bearings and gold plated solid silver contacts.
Brought it home hooked it up and realized just how much i liked it.
I do recommend that you purchase the universal hookup kit it makes things so easy to get the by 1 connected to your radio and up and running.
Ultimately i had to give those paddles back to their owner and i ve been paddle less ever since.
The by 1 is a well rounded key.
I am not a great cw person yet.
I learned cw on a set of borrowed bencher by 1 iambic paddles.
The bencher by 1 iambic paddle is just one in a series are dual lever iambic paddles.
And since you ll probably own one someday anyway you might as well buy one right off the bat and save the suspense.
But for a first paddle you d have to look long and hard to find a better key to start out with.
Having knocked out more than half the u s.
My bencher by 1 paddles have about a 3 4 oto spacing on the paddles and i have to consciously hold my hand open a bit wider than it naturally wants to be to keep from accidentally touching a paddle.
One of the things i dislike about the by 1 series is their tendency to fly apart under vigorous keying.
So far i m very happy with the performance but i ve yet to key a set of begali paddles but the bencher is also less expensive.
Like my previous bencher by 1 paddle some of the holes weren t drilled fully and the threads not cut all the way down making assembly screws jam in place before they were fully tight.
A few yrs after the trade i saw in qst a mod to make a dual paddle into a single with a simple piece of plastic.
I bought one of these to replace a bencher by 1 i bought in 1980.
The rubber feet were loose because of this making the key dance around the table and rock diagonally in use.
Like the vibroplex bug the bencher by 1 is everywhere.
I picked this up in huntsville at the hamfest.
I prefer the st 1 single lever a lot.
Works good for us qrs operators a whole lot better then the dual paddle.
I got a bencher by 2 and a few years later traded it for a st 1.