[TenTec] The QSK of QSK

[Jim Brown]

W4BQF said,

>> Had to change that vacuum relay annually!

[K9YC notes that W4BQF works very high speed CW, so he 
puts that relay through a LOT of cycles annually.]

To which Bill Tippett replied:

>Hmmmm...there's a lesson somewhere in there guys!

Hmmm right back. I have to use a muffler on my car, to protect 
for air quality and reduce the noise it makes. That muffler wears 
out every few years. I have to buy plugs every year or two. Should 
I switch to a car that doesn't need either?  Should I switch to a 
bicycle that requires neither? 

That vacuum relay allows me to operate with a higher degree of 
sensitivity to what is going on around me, which, as noted in my 
earlier post, I see as my responsibility when I choose to run high 
power. I see that vacuum relay, and that muffler, as part of my 
cost of ownership of that amplifier and that automobile. It is part 
of my responsibility to be a good neighbor. 

And now you have shared with us your reasoning for the foot 
switch, I have another rhetorical question. Would YOU be a more 
sensitive operator with a fast vacuum relay instead the foot 
switch?  Is your reason for avoiding the relay that you don't want 
to have a failure in the middle of a contest, or is it the COST of 
the relay?  If it is the latter, I would say you are being cheap and 
not factoring in your responsibility to other hams, especially 
since I have learned that good surplus vacuum relays are widely 
available for $40.  If it is the former, I see it as being conservative 
with respect to equipment failure.  

Jim Brown  K9YC