The Jesse H. Bunnell Triumph steel lever key

    First post of a series describing the morsekeys I got from the estate of PA3BCB Gerard. I bought a box full of keys as I wrote before in one of my posts. The plan is to restore and clean them one by one and then make at least one contact with each of them. 

At the left the J.H. Bunnell Triumph steel lever key. Date of manufacturing unknown but I guess it is somewhere between 1920-1950. The circuit close switch for telegraph use is missing or was never there? The wooden board is grey and stamped CAKU 26032, the same number is engraved in a aluminium plate around the cord. The cord was old and insulation gone and connector was a 6,3mm jackplug. I decided to replace the cord and jackplug for a smaller 3,5mm one which I use here in my station. It was time to clean everything...

A fun procedure and a lot of work to clean and polish everything using an old toothbrush and some brass polish. The result is a nice and shiny key.

At the time I was ready with the key I was on a short vacation. So I had no transmitter brought with me and if I did I wouldn't have the time to test it. It took some weeks before I was able to finally make a short video from the key in use making a contact. It is not the best ever video but it gives an impression. Personally I think the key is working very well, it feels good and is very light in use. However if you don't like the "clicking" sound it makes this is not the key for you ;-).

Watch me working SX20RCK on 17m.

I've been searching for information about this key on the internet. I found that J.H. Bunnell & Co does still exist and even has a own website:

http://jhbunnell.com/bunnellcohistory.shtml

Jesse Bunnell is the inventor of the steel lever key. An interesting article about the history of the Triumph key can be found here:

https://www.telegraph-history.org/bunnell/

I got another J.H. Bunnell key which doesn't have a steel lever. It might be older. It is slightly different apart from the lever which is brass on this model. It also has another knob and is not mounted on a wooden base. This will be the next project. So if you have any other information about this "older" key, please let me know.

Hamradio future radio equipment?

   Sometimes I've the feeling I'm doing my hobby with outdated equipment. Yes the Icom IC-7300 is a SDR radio. But the options and configurations you can have and do on such a radio are limited. I've been writing before about Hamradio in the future in 2011, at that time a radio controlled by a tablet and with touch screen was a novelty.  I predicted that in the future radios would be much more configurable. PD2TW Tjip, a neighbourstation, did direct me to something I've not really seen before. Actually software SDRs are around for a time but it didn't interest me a lot. They were expensive, you needed a fast computer and a lot of time to configure everything. May be I have been sleeping but hamradio equipment has evolved! A very popular transceiver these days is a BRICK 2 SDR which is doing a great job together with software called Thetis and a Chinese made RS-928 150W solid state amplifier. If you have patience you can order some of these at the cheap AliExpress, Bangood or whatever sites and have a real bargain. You end up with an excellent 150W HF radio for under 1000 euro which is still much more capable and a lot cheaper as a IC-7300. With such a SDR you have a transceiver that has pure signal capabilities and two independent receivers. Obviously you need to connect it to a good fast computer with enough memory because the radio needs the computer to work. But then you have endless configuration possibilities with the Thetis software or similar. You can also remote control everything via internet with any phone, tablet or other computer. Since everything is configurable the software is updated regularly with new features for the SDR radio. If you like to tinker with these kind of radios it is really worth to figure things out.  Personally I don't like to tinker with endless configurations and tune ups till a radio works like you want. Am I getting old? Or bored? I don't know but I get the feeling this technology is too fast and complicated for me. But for others this is a way of enjoying the hobby with new things, features, possebilities.

Personally I prefer to get back to the basics of transmitting with a morsekey and CW without the use of any computer. I don't feel any magic watching and clicking on a waterfall and/or a computerscreen. Although I enjoy digital modes a lot and still use them to make contacts. But I also like to listen and wandering over the band just by turning a dial. I wonder how radio will evolve in the future? I've predicted this kind of radio 15 years ago. But don't clearly see what is coming in next 15 years. Will there still be "analog (SDR) equipment" or is it just a (cheap) black configurable box SDR you buy. What about you? What would you like in 15 years? What would you prefer? Is the SDR black box something that attracts you?

PD5L has a detailed page about the equipment described above:

https://pd5l.home.blog/brick-2-14-bit-sdr-transceiver/ 

ON7OFF has everything about the Thetis software on his channel:

https://www.youtube.com/@ON7OFF

I very nice implementation of a Hermes Lite 2 and Thetis in the video below...

#6m worked Burkina Faso

 

First 6m band new one of 2026. The season started...