[CQ-Contest] Foot Switches

[Ray Benny]

Back when I was a starving college student, I worked part time in a small
business repairing dictating machines. As others have found, dictating
machine foot switches are a good source, some rather fancy. In the days of
tape dictating machines, the typist lightly pressed the foot switch to hear
and type out the recording. She would then press harder on the foot switch
to the second position, which acted as a back space, so she could review
the recording if she missed something.

I ended up with a Grundig foot switch with two separate switches and two
positions each. The first switch, first position was pressed to open the
amp PTT line, the second switch was pressed to key and tune the exciter
only, both feet were required. All I had to do was release the first switch
to close the amp PTT line to key the exciter and tune the amp.

Those days are long gone with our solid state exciters, so I now use the
first foot switch to key rig 1 and the second switch to key rig 2. My hands
are free to manually tune the amps, or if you have a no tune amp, do
something else.

Not sure where to find these old foot switches. Perhaps thrift or surplus
stores???

Ray,
N6VR


On Wed, Aug 28, 2013 at 10:31 AM, Steve (W5KI) <w5ki at silverlarkcrafts.com>wrote:

> Ditto here on old dictating machine switches.  Mine is about 6x8, heavy
> metal, rubber feet, and had a very smooth action.  Besides the relay that
> closes when depressing the pedal, it has one relay that "opens" during that
> depression.
>
> Steve, W5KI
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 11
> Date: Wed, 28 Aug 2013 07:48:23 -0400
> From: Pete Smith N4ZR <n4zr at contesting.com>
> To: cq-contest at contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Foot switches ?
> Message-ID: <521DE387.2060507 at contesting.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> I use an old dictating machine footswitch that I got for $10 at a local
> consignment store.  Nice and heavy, and it even has 3 separate switches,
> though I have not figured out how to use that...
>
> I put a strip of Velcro hooks on the bottom of the switch, and it stays
> put absolutely on the Berber carpet in the shack.
>
> 73, Pete N4ZR
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