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Vintage Amateur and Military Radio Amateur/military receivers and transmitters, morse, and any other related vintage comms equipment.

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Old 14th Jul 2020, 4:45 pm   #1
mickm3for
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Default Star-Masterkey.

Hi i require some information on this keyer it has a jack socket on the front for the paddle ? on the back it has 1/4 inch jack + 2x phono is the 1/4 inch going to go to the key socket on the radio ? a Kenwood ts480 if so why would it damage the keying components inside the radio a smt 0 ohm burnt and a switching transistor o/c . Radio works normaly having replaced them but am reluctant to plug this keyer in for fear of damaging these parts again ( krc402e small 1.6mmx.85 three legs lost one? ) any ideas thanks in advance Mick
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Old 14th Jul 2020, 5:00 pm   #2
mickm3for
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Default Re: star-masterkey

update if i plug a 1/4 jack into the rear it shuts off the int l/s but the phono skts each have a voltage on them when key down 2vac on one and 9vac on other . checking the power adapter (no brand or volt out but is 9v) mesuring from + or - to ground i have 10.8v ac wondering if this is what took out the parts in rig. Mick
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Old 14th Jul 2020, 5:26 pm   #3
frsimen
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Default Re: Star-Masterkey.

Hello Mick,

The output phono sockets are intended to pull whatever voltage is applied to them to chassis when the the characters are sent. One is intended to switch a negative voltage, the other a positive. There is no voltage present on those pins normally.

It sounds as if your 9v power supply has a fault if the keyer burnt out components in the TS480.

The paddle key plugs into the front panel socket. You can check that nothing nasty is happening by connecting a meter to the output phono sockets and checking that no voltages are present when keying. Having done that, you can check that it is operating properly by switching the meter to ohms and watching the value displayed drop when keying. Use the positive probe of a DMM to the positive keyer socket, the negative to chassis, or the other way round for the negative socket.

In case you have lost the label on the back, when viewed from the rear the sockets are as follows from left to right:

Grid block keyer (negative polarity) , postive polarity keyer, phones. The two trimmers accessible from the rear are volume (L) and tone (R).

Paula
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Old 14th Jul 2020, 7:47 pm   #4
dodgy-dxer
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Default Re: Star-Masterkey.

Quote:
Originally Posted by mickm3for View Post
Hi i require some information on this keyer it has a jack socket on the front for the paddle ? on the back it has 1/4 inch jack + 2x phono is the 1/4 inch going to go to the key socket on the radio ? a Kenwood ts480 if so why would it damage the keying components inside the radio a smt 0 ohm burnt and a switching transistor o/c . Radio works normaly having replaced them but am reluctant to plug this keyer in for fear of damaging these parts again ( krc402e small 1.6mmx.85 three legs lost one? ) any ideas thanks in advance Mick
Mick

The paddle goes into the front panel 1/4 in stereo jack

The rear panel 1/4 in jack is for HEADPHONES to listen to the morse

As Paula said the 2 phono (aka RCA) connectors are used to key the rig. With a modern solid state radio is the one marked + or positive

You should not be able to damage the rig with either phono, the wrong one will send upside down morse!

As suggested TEST it on its own before connecting to your radio

73 Fred
G4BWP
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Old 14th Jul 2020, 11:33 pm   #5
mickm3for
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Default Re: Star-Masterkey.

thanks for the info Mick
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