I have the K1EL WKUSB-SMT keyer. I like it a lot. I use it at home and in the field. I would normally either plug it into my laptop or a battery for power. However, I am trying to clean up my act and reduce some of the cabling I have. The keyer will run for months on 3 AAA batteries that stow inside the case. It is a little bit of a chore to change them out due to the 4 teeny screws that hold the clamshell case together. Fine at home, but could become an issue in the field.
I put the batteries in and placed the keyer right-side up in my field box. When I got to the campsite and took the box out of my truck, I heard “dah-di-dah-dit, dah-dah-di-dah” I must have bumped one of the buttons. I open the box and there was the keyer chirping away — with no way to turn it off. Luckily, the paddles were in the top tray so it was easy to hook them up and send a dit to stop the keyer.
When I got home, I scrounged a few parts. All I needed was an SPST switch, some wire, and shrink tubing.
I found an open spot below the paddle connector and drilled an appropriate-sized hole.
A little bit of solder and some heat on the shrink and I’m done.
Now when I travel, I just flip the switch to turn it off. It probably took me more time to write this than to complete the project.
I use the keyer a lot. It integrates with ACLog seamlessly. There is also an app that allows me to program the keyer with a keyboard. I can then save the different message banks on the computer and load the one I need for the trip. I have one for POTA, SOTA, and Field Days. One thing I like is I can slow the CW speed for certain words. I’ll do that with Park ID. Start at 18, slow down for the park number, and then speed back up again. All with the push of a button.
I hope this gives you ideas for your own projects. 73 — Scott
K1EL keyers are well known and are pretty much universally accepted interfaces for most amateur radio software programs. If you are keyboading CW or running CW scripts from your computer, you need to use this interface. The reason is how the computer allocates processing time. From the K1EL website Windows is a multi-tasking operating system which means that the CPU is shared between many different tasks. This makes it very difficult to accurately time CW due to constant task switching. This results in unevenly timed dits and dahs. For example, in the middle of a word you might have an R with a really long dah in the middle or an A that sounds more like an M. By off loading CW generation to a separate dedicated microcontroller, all the timing problems disappear. Logging programs running on the PC send ASCII letters to Winkeyer for conversion to Morse, this allows the PC to focus on more important things.
I have both the WK Mini and the WinKeyer USB. The biggest difference is the Mini has to have a computer connected to it and the WinKeyer USB can operate stand-alone because it has buttons. Both are USB powered. The WinKeyer USB can run on batteries. I have a USB power port that I hook-up to the radio battery. It can also charge my phone.
How does it play? When hooked up to your computer, both can be controlled by software. ACLog by N3FJP has an excellent interface. Here is a screenshot of my setup on my Surface Go2.
As you can see, you can create CW scripts right in ACLog that will play through the WinKeyer. The scripts correspond with the F-buttons at the top of your keyboard. Or you can have a mini F button window within ACLog which you can click with a mouse or if you have a touch screen a touch of your finger. The latter is my preferred method. One of the benefits of controlling your WinKeyer with ACLog is you can pull data out of ACLog to use in the script. Notice in the F2 script, there is a $ and an *. The $ sign pulls the call sign in the Call window of ACLog and the * pulls the RST from the Sent window. Theoretically, you can make exchanges without even touching a paddle as long as everyone is using the same format.
The WinKeyer USB also works well in stand a lone mode (not hooked up to a computer). It can store up to 12 messages in two banks. There are plenty of ways to customize the messages. I will give a few hints but the instructions that come with the keyer are extensive. With the WinKeyer USB you can use the messages in ACLog and Winkeyer USB interchangeably. However, you must use the F buttons to trigger an ACLog message and the WinKeyer USB buttons to trigger a Winkeyer message
The first thing you do is plug the keyer into your radio and set the radio keyer to STRAIGHT key. The keyer will handle the rest. You plug your paddle into the keyer. Besides sending CW with your paddles, you can edit and change the messages and parameters of the keyer. There is also an app for your computer to interface with the keyer. It looks like this.
What is nice about Winkeyer USB is you can type in the message and not have to send CW via the paddle to create the message. It gives you more control over how the message is set up. Looking at message 1, it is a standard CQ message. However, I want it to repeat until I stop it (send a dit or dah with the paddles to stop it). Winkeyer was a beacon mode however it beacons at a set period of time. For example at 20 wpm I set my CQ to repeat every 13 seconds giving about a 3 second space between call. During my activation I slowed my wpm down to 16 and now I had no gap between CQ’s. The solution was to use the wait command and then the go to message 1 command. The wait command is the /W03 it means wait 3 seconds before continuing. the /1 means play message one. So now no matter what speed I set the keyer, I will always have a 3 second gap.
Next is the /R command. What this does is it treats the next 2 letters as a prosign like SK, KN, or BT. For POTA, I like to send BK as a prosign so the command is /R BK.
The last command you see is /Z3. What this does is slow the rest of the message down 3 wpm (you can change the amount). When doing a Park to Park (P2P) sometimes the park number catches you off guard. Your brain is thinking something else. So by slowing down the park number is gives an operator a chance to catch up and get the number.
When using radios like the Xeigu G90 which does not have CW memories or the Lab599 TX-500 which only has two. The Winkeyer gives you options to help make operating more comfortable. Let the keyer call CQ while you take a sip of coffee or let it say thank you while you are finishing up logging the contact. With the WinKeyer USB, you can keep the message buttons close at hand. The WK mini weighs in at 1.5 oz and the WinKeyer USB weighs 7 oz. Both are small and easy to toss into a pack. For more information: https://hamcrafters2.com/index.html
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