Palm Mini-Paddle (was PPK)

[KC9TNH]

Just curious if anyone has tried the Palm PPK, as noted here. (No, I've already tried the Walther thanks, although this one is from Germany as well.)

Have read the eham reviews, curious if anyone here has tried one.
Thanks for playing.

[cockpitbob]

I haven't heard anything about their straight keys, but their mini-paddles get rave reviews, but just a little too spendy for me.  For a little paddle I got the te-ne-key.  The reviews on eham.net are spot on.  It takes a little fussing to adjust it to the feel you like, but then it's solid and doesn't change.  I have mine adjusted so it's almost like touch paddles.  No motion and a light touch.

[cockpitbob]

I haven't heard anything about their straight keys, but their mini-paddles get rave reviews.  They are a little too spendy for me.  For a little paddle I got the te-ne-key.  The reviews on eham.net are spot on.  It takes a little fussing to adjust it to the feel you like, but then it's solid and doesn't change.  I have mine adjusted so it's almost like touch paddles.  No motion and a light touch.

[KC9TNH]

I haven't heard anything about their straight keys, but their mini-paddles get rave reviews, but just a little too spendy for me.  For a little paddle I got the te-ne-key.

Thanks for sharing that link. Not for me but that is a VERY neat thing.

FWIW I realized that I had sufficient J-37's laying about to just use the kneeboard solution if I want & have spares, but what I also wanted was not another key but another (and very portable) paddle. So I popped for their mini-paddle. Pricey yeah, but alot of things are. Sometimes with an extended QSO if my right wrist does its thing I need to go to a paddle, just a change of motion. And since I will be having a bit more spare time (so they say) in a couple months it seemed the thing to do. CW with the 817 and some thrown wire from up on the ridge. (One of their vid links to the guy sitting on the Spanish beach in his flip-flops with an 897 and a whip reminded me of Ray.)

Anyway, we'll see. From the uses & reviews I've seen it seems to be a quality product; remains to be seen whether it's for me or not. More to follow.
:)

[KC9TNH]

So I popped for their mini-paddle....

Anyway, we'll see. From the uses & reviews I've seen it seems to be a quality product; remains to be seen whether it's for me or not. More to follow.
:)

Arrived yesterday, which was timely as I'd been re-arranging the table to facilitate more regular use of the 817 and the (now) keys dedicated to it, and swatted in advance a couple of potential RF mosquitoes. Shack stuff.

Came in its little plastic case (which seems molded for it) along with cord, instructions, some extra sticky-feet, magnets already installed in the base, and a small square of that bluish non-skid holey material in case you don't want it moving about on an unadorned wood desktop. I need to find myself a legal-size sheet of this junk; it's awesome & I have all kinds of uses for it.  I had a small narrow piece of armor left over from a hanging target a buddy zero'd out with his 50BMG and thought about it just sitting on that next to the J-37. Instead I decided to see if it will really work in position as depicted here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=as6OrGc9w3I
Ahhh, a giant salt-water counterpoise is a wonderful thing...   8)
As it could be bicycle-mounted, if you can head copy is it still texting while driving?

The instructions (Englisch/Deutsch) were quite straightforward, with very clear explanation as to method of contact & tension adjustments with the baby hex-key, supplied, which stores right inside the key's body. Before tweaking I played with it a bit and, out of the box, it wasn't bad.  Re-reading the instructions (with pictures for this neanderthal) one slight contact tweak each side, one slight tension tweak and it was literally like a baby version to my '61 Vibroplex. 20m was hopping with some light-sig DX last night so Russia got the first contact with it. (Had to fire up the HL45B and gave him 20w over the pole.)

It is well-made, and a very nice design. Because it's so small, it's good that it's a dual-lever paddle for my huge paw. But it will run those neat little 'R' and 'K' and [AR] signals by squeezing with ease, although I'm not an Iambic type.  It seems sturdy, though. Some reviews expressed some lack of confidence in the strain relief of the small-pinned cord at the back. In a mobile environment, or if I was ALWAYS going to leave the cord attached, I would rig up something (maybe not Gorilla glue), but why? The cord unplugs and can go into whatever little case, which can be much smaller than the one it comes with. Use your imagination.

It runs just fine with the magnetic base right on top of the rig, taking care just to position it so that one doesn't bump controls on the 817.
Now that I've seen the quality of this one, I might still have to have the key and that would leave more room on the kneeboard if the backup to the backup J-37 goes to #2 grand-daughter who's expressed interest. Wife stopped by the little casino on the way home last night, popped in some pennies on a machine and my split was $100 so the PPK might still be in the mix. But as mentioned elsewhere I should go ahead & call up some sources up in the Twin Cities & nug out the details of a solar solution w/controller for my gel-cells. We're preppin', right?

All in all:  Thumbs-up x2

Edit to add: Since that's what it turned into, might want to just move this to the sub-forum for reviews.
Also added a couple of pics for scale with the 817, paddles retracted for packing & in use.