Hi.

Since I still use a straight key, I cheated.  I made up a little switchbox 
with a 6 position double pole switch, and put a panel of 6 quarter inch 
phone jacks on the back of the box.  On the front of the box, I mounted a 
quarter inch phone jack which I wired to the common terminals on the switch 
and wired each of the six jacks on the back to a set of the output 
terminals on the switch.  Lastly, I mounted a single pole single throw 
switch across the key line where it plugs in on the common side of the 
switch.  I used shield audio patch cords to run to each of the rigs that 
can operate CW in the shack, and now what I have is a switch box where I 
can switch the key to any radio that I want to transmit on, and if I need 
to tune one, I throw the SPST toggle switch on the front until I am done 
tuning  (especially helpful with manual tuners where there are never enough 
hands to hold down a key and adjust caps at the same time.  Of all of the 
gadgets that I've ever made for the shack, that one is probably the most 
useful one that I have.  By the way, I can also run the keyboard keyer 
through that switch by plugging it in in place of the straight key.  I 
suppose that if I had, I might have been able to bond all of the grounds to 
the case and only switch the signal leads for the paddles.  What I did do 
was isolate the grounds on the jacks from the case itself by mounting them 
on perfboard such that the ground side of the jack did not make contact 
with the case.

Anyway, that design has served me well for the last 25 years.

73, de Lou K2LKK



I've never liked paddles, so I've never had to worry about the third conductor.

At 10:20 PM 9/27/2008 -0400, you wrote:
>Hi, again, folks.
>
>Sorry for all these questions, but I want to ask them now that they have
>come to mind, and before I forget them.
>
>Does anyone know how to generate a continuous tone in the TS480 for the
>purpose of tuning an antenna?
>
>I can't seem to find the instructions for doing so in the manual, although I
>may just be missing them.
>
>73 from Tom behler:  KB8TYJ
>
>
>
>--
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>1:11 PM

Louis Kim Kline
A.R.S. K2LKK
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