HamGadgets News

Well, it was a very good trip to Dayton this year.  Our new booth location was much better than last year, and attendance (especially Saturday) was very good.  Our products were well received and we were happy to be able to meet and talk with so many new and existing customers.  All in all, we’re tired, worn out and in need of some good coffee but it was a good trip.

I should have PicoKeyer-Plus kits back in stock within a week or so at most, and I’ll be spending the next day or two catching up on the web orders that came in while we were away.  Happy hamming!

What a day!  I would have to say that after last year, the Hamvention is definitely looking healthier.  We’re certainly busier, due in part to a much better booth location.  And hams seem to be in a buying mood; conversations are more upbeat and attitudes are more positive.  All in all it feels like it’s a good sign for ham radio and the economy in general.

We sold out of PicoKeyer-Plus kits a little after lunch time today, but still have plenty of UKA-2 and ID-O-Matic II kits left.  We’ve got a few MasterKeyers that I hope to sell before we pack up tomorrow.

I’ve now met both the present and former owners of Vibroplex, as well as a few other people I had hoped to see here.  I still haven’t seen most of the Hamvention, though, and haven’t even been out to the flea market once during either trip!  Some day I’ll have to do that…

Lisa and I arrived very late Wednesday night after a 12 hour drive.  We spent yesterday unpacking and setting up the booth.  This morning the gates opened at 9 AM sharp, and it was pretty apparent within a short time that the crowd was a little bigger than last year, and the outlook was a lot brighter.  There are more vendors and more hams in Dayton this year, and things are definitely looking up.

Piero Begali is, as always, very generous in loaning us a couple of his wonderful pieces of functional Morse artwork, a Stealth and a gold-on-gold Pearl.  I also had a chance to visit with the new owner of Vibroplex, Scott Robbins W4PA, as well as several other new and old friends.

I swear, if one more person asks me about a voice keyer or a CW reader… 

Friday is pretty much behind us now.  Some great Donato’s pizza, a little relaxation and TV at the hotel, and I may even indulge in a little reward for a hard day’s work before we’re back at it in the morning.

Today I finally received new UKA-2 boards.  I changed the power input connector from the old RCA jack to the new 2.5mm/5mm barrel connector, commonly found on many “wall wart” type power supplies.  It’s also the same connector used on the MK-1, and of course I have listed a matching power cable on the web site.

Not many people liked putting a power supply on an RCA connector — there were just too many things that could go wrong.  So, this revision will fix that and make the UKA-2 a little friendlier in the shack.  Other than that I rearranged the components a little, but functionally there are no other changes.  I’ll have the new kits with me in Dayton, and will have the web site updated later today or tomorrow.

We’ll be leaving for Dayton the morning of 5/12 (Wednesday), so no orders will be shipped from 5/12 through at least 5/16.  I’ll start shipping again the 17th.

I will have the entire remaining stock of PicoKeyer-Plus kits with me in Dayton, and will probably sell out there.  It will be mid-June before I have more.   A new batch of circuit boards is on order, but I didn’t anticipate a recent bulk order and it looks like we’ll be out of stock for a few weeks after these are gone.  So, if you want a PK-Plus kit you should put your order in before 5/12.

We will be in booth 482 in Dayton, so if you plan to be there please stop by and see us.

I have been working on firmware version 1.22 for the MK-1.  Right now it’s in the Alpha test stage, though there is still some development to be done.  This is mostly a bug fix release to address some problems found in V1.21.  Most of the issues involved the USB drive save/restore.  I am also working on debugging problems with a couple of keyboards that people have found not to work.  More news to come as it develops.