Playing around with several Beacon Keyers, I needed a paddle to program a CW Keyer. I thought in combining the Beacon Keyer with a CW Keyer to use it in the ZS1I 80M Beacon. I decided to surf the web for small and easy to build paddles or interesting schematics. I found the NB6M paddle and decided to homebrew this version. This is a simple CW paddle built from double-sided PC board. It is very simple to construct and should only take an hour or two to complete.
The material you need to construct the paddle are some double sided PC board, four brass nuts, two screws to fit the nuts, 2 guitar pics, small bolt and nut and some wire. You will also need a soldering iron and some way to hold the pieces of PC board together. A pair of "extra hands," a heavy base with two alligator clips, comes in handy. Shine the PC board with steel wool and cut it into the following pieces:
Drill two holes into te back piece on one end. This is for the cable to connect the paddle to the keyer. Solder it to the base about 10mm from the back edge of the base as illustrated in the picture.
Next drill a hole in the middle of each post. Put one brass nut on each screw and stick it through the hole of the post. Screw the other nut on the other side so that the screw is firmly attached to the post. Solder one of the nuts to the post. Make sure you solder only one of the nuts to each post.
Next solder the posts to the base making sure to put the nut side on the inside. Spacing isn't critical, but make sure to place them equal distance from each other. Make sure they aren't too far apart so that the screws won't touch.
Drill a hole in one end of the paddle lever. This hole will allow the lever to move back and forth with ease. Be sure not to make the hole too large or else the paddle with lose its springiness. You can adjust the tension by enlarging the hole after it's attached to the base. Be sure to enlarge the hole a little at a time. Once you have made the hole, cut the copper trace on either side of the hole with a hacksaw blade or Dremel tool. This will provide isolation for each side of the paddle from the base.
Thread the screws through the nuts on the posts and insert the paddle lever between them. Put the enc with the hole touching the back and tighten the screws so that it holds the lever firmly. Be sure to center the lever and make sure it doesn't touch the base. Solder the lever to the back. The construction will then be complete.
Once the lever has been soldered to the back, unscrew the screws to provide a gap between them and the lever. Once a comfortable gap has been found, screw the two nuts that aren't soldered to the posts down to lock the screws in place. Next wind the cable through the two holes to secure it to the paddle. The cable can be made from any kind of cord hat has at least three conductors. Now take the two guitar pics and drill a hole through and the lever. See photo. Screw them onto the lever and that will be your paddles. Now affix the completed CW Paddle to a heavy base. Finally shine the paddle with steel wool and spray with clear spray paint. Ensure that the contact points on the paddle lever is clean from spray paint to ensure good contact and continuity. You are now ready to test the paddle.
My paddle works flawlessly although my code skill has deteriorated through the years. However I managed to use the paddle to program the CW Keyer I worked on. That's all there is to it. You now have a very portable small, light, and best of all, cheap set of paddles.
Photos of the ZS1I version of the NB6M CW Paddle:
