by Dave Ditlow, K6LDO
Past-President, UCLA Amateur Radio Club (1995-1997)
Avid CW operator, DX'er, Contester, Hi-Fi SSB Audio enthusiast,
First licensed as KC6LDO in 1990.
Los Angeles, California USA

Welcome to the latest feature of the UCLA ARC website. I am starting this section because many of the UCLA ARC members have interesting pieces of equipment that would interest other Amateur Radio Operators. This section will contain pieces of our favorite equipment, store bought, homebrew, unique designs, along with descriptions and photographs. Due to the rareness, value, or inability to replace, these items are among those things which we rarely take out of our homes, much less allow them to leave our sight. These are our special "tools" of the trade that without this section, others would never be able to see. You can be assured that these items are never brought to, much less left in the UCLA Radio Room. But , thanks to our webmaster, and the convenience of the internet we can now share some of these items between ourseves, and other radio enthusiasts in the internet community. So if you have a piece of equipment, a project, an accessory, or an interesting antenna - please take some pictures, sit down and write a description of the item and submit it for presentation on the webpage! I am sure many would be interested in seeing your equipment. So tonight, to start off this section of the website, I am writing this article about one of my absolute favorite pieces of equipment that I have ever owned. This piece has truly made my CW experience even better. I have had it for about 4 months now. The piece is the:

Signature Edition Iambic Paddle

The Signature Edition is the flagship of our line of magnetic paddles with a traditional design. It embodies the experience that we have gained with the Magnetic Classic and the Magnetic Professional paddles, and it incorporates improvements that were suggested by our customers. It was designed to be the finest “classical” paddle that can be produced with today’s techniques and materials, and no expense was spared toward that goal.

We start with the same heavy base that we are using in our other paddles, and you can order it with gold plating or palladium plating. The precision bearings are specially selected and matched, and they exceed the standards that are usually applied for laboratory instruments. They are concealed in the base and in the central bearing block for a clean visual design. The friction springs for the gap adjustments are hidden inside the contact posts. The cable connection is made through a 1/8” stereo jack in the base - so no unsightly cables are dangling around when it is not connected to your keyer.

The finger pieces are made of an anodized aluminum alloy, and we provide two sets: one has the longer geometry that our plastic paddles for the other Magnetic paddles have, shown here, and a second set that is slightly shorter. Some of our pilot users preferred the more direct translation ratio offered by shorter finger pieces - but since there was no clear cut choice we include both shapes and leave it up to you to determine your preference.

Using magnets rather than springs for the action has distinct advantages, especially if you prefer a light touch with close spacing. Since the moving magnets are imbedded in micro-threaded tubes they can be adjusted with utmost precision and maintain their setting over a wide range of temperature variation. The magnets on the arms are mounted close to the pivot which keeps the effective moving mass low and allows a responsiveness at high speeds that is unique for magnetic paddles. For that same reason the arms are made of a black anodized aircraft alloy that is very light but rigid.

Each of these paddles is personally inspected by Piero to make sure that it meets our exacting standards, and it comes with a signed certificate of authenticity that also records the manufacturing date. (each paddle has a serial number engraved in the base)

Once you have experienced this paddle in operation we are sure that you will join the ranks of our many enthusiastic customers - find out what they had to say on eHam ...