Self adjusting needle bearings and gold plated solid silver contacts.
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.
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.
As a long time user of the by 1 bencher paddles think 32 years i ve always wanted to try a higher end key.
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.
The by 1 was damaged in a recent move so it was time to shop for something a little more modern.
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.
Like the vibroplex bug the bencher by 1 is everywhere.
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.
The rubber feet were loose because of this making the key dance around the table and rock diagonally in use.
I got a bencher by 2 and a few years later traded it for a st 1.
The heavy steel bases and and non skid feet keep it in place while operating.
One of the things i dislike about the by 1 series is their tendency to fly apart under vigorous keying.
I picked this up in huntsville at the hamfest.
Brought it home hooked it up and realized just how much i liked it.
Having knocked out more than half the u s.
I bought one of these to replace a bencher by 1 i bought in 1980.
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.
I am not a great cw person yet.
Bnr by 1 a couple of quick adjustments and it was good to go.
Ultimately i had to give those paddles back to their owner and i ve been paddle less ever since.
I prefer the st 1 single lever a lot.
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.
Very smooth built like a tank and heavy.
States on the old ameco straight key and used it for a few late night ragchews it had become.
The bencher by 1 iambic paddle is just one in a series are dual lever iambic paddles.
It features adjustable contact spacing and tension.
Works good for us qrs operators a whole lot better then the dual paddle.
But for a first paddle you d have to look long and hard to find a better key to start out with.
Some ops love them some ops don t.
And since you ll probably own one someday anyway you might as well buy one right off the bat and save the suspense.
