NEED INFO ON HEATH KEYER SA5010

[JF]

k2sse wrote:
> Hi John
> Great info from you as there are NO Paddles to be had and I will take 
> your advice and use an external paddle key although I'm hoping to use it 
> with a Cw Beacon.
> Also there are NO Batteries so I will keep the unit powered up.
> Thank you   73   Al

Hi Al.
If you want to try the capacitive paddles I can send you an E-Mail
with a JPG picture attached showing their size and shape. Each of
the 2 is just a sort of L-shaped flat piece of aluminum about 3/32"
thick (a hair less than 3 mm), so you could make your own out of
aluminum or brass stock. The total length is 2-5/8", of which about
7/8" at the bottom makes the 9/32" tall (7 mm) narrow prong that
slides into to the 2 slots at the front edge of the keyer. The
prong widens out to make the paddle, about 1.5" long by 1" tall,
like this:

          1-7/16"
        ___________
       |           \
  1"   |            \
       |             \     7/8"
       |__________    \________
                  \____________|  7 mm
         1-1/8"        1-5/16"

The tips of the 7 mm tall prongs should be tapered a bit":
                       _________
                                \
                                 |
                       _________/

A bit steeper than that, like a blunt arrowhead.

There should be a big 3" x 3.5" label on the bottom of the keyer
with brief instructions for the various settings. Some are not
very descriptive, you need to read the manual. You may find that
the speed settings entered via the keypad are not accurate:
to get a real 20 wpm I have to set it at 23-24 wpm.

The 4 adjustment holes in the bottom are a bit small to see what
you're doing, so I drilled mine out to about 1/4" diameter;
however, this is not worth doing if you can turn the pots OK with
a small screwdriver.

If you ever do open the case, take extreme precautions with tools
and fingers to eliminate static electricity. If you can avoid it,
don't open it at all.

If you decide to put batteries in it, they are 3 A76 or S76 type
in series in a holder by the speaker, positive side toward the
orange wire. Silver oxide batteries last longer than alkalines.
The same anti-static precautions apply.

If you plug regular paddles into the rear you can reverse which
paddle is for dots or dashes by turning over the plug, and
presumably also by simultaneously pressing the LOAD SEND buttons
on the keypad.

The memory holds only 240 characters (see page 54 in the manual
for instructions, and word spaces are also characters) if it's a
later model. As I mentioned previously, early models had a circuit
error that cut that in half, so try yours and see. I also said
that Heathkit didn't publish a field fix, but now that I've stirred
the musty brain cells I recall that if asked they did send out a
fix that involved moving one disk cap (C4). Let me know if you run
into that problem and I'll send the details.

If you have occasion to need high current from the negative keying
output for an older xmtr, you'll need to add an outboard
one-transistor buffer circuit to handle it. Let me know if you
need a diagram.

73
John    KE5ZB

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