As a long time user of the by 1 bencher paddles think 32 years i ve always wanted to try a higher end key.
Bencher by 1 review.
I do recommend that you purchase the universal hookup kit it makes things so easy to get the by 1 connected to your radio and up and running.
Bnr by 1 a couple of quick adjustments and it was good to go.
Like my previous bencher by 1 paddle some of the holes weren t drilled fully and the threads not cut all the way down making assembly screws jam in place before they were fully tight.
The rubber feet were loose because of this making the key dance around the table and rock diagonally in use.
Some ops love them some ops don t.
And since you ll probably own one someday anyway you might as well buy one right off the bat and save the suspense.
A few yrs after the trade i saw in qst a mod to make a dual paddle into a single with a simple piece of plastic.
So far i m very happy with the performance but i ve yet to key a set of begali paddles but the bencher is also less expensive.
Self adjusting needle bearings and gold plated solid silver contacts.
One of the things i dislike about the by 1 series is their tendency to fly apart under vigorous keying.
Like the vibroplex bug the bencher by 1 is everywhere.
I picked this up in huntsville at the hamfest.
The heavy steel bases and and non skid feet keep it in place while operating.
The bencher by 1 iambic paddle is just one in a series are dual lever iambic paddles.
Ultimately i had to give those paddles back to their owner and i ve been paddle less ever since.
My bencher by 1 paddles have about a 3 4 oto spacing on the paddles and i have to consciously hold my hand open a bit wider than it naturally wants to be to keep from accidentally touching a paddle.
Brought it home hooked it up and realized just how much i liked it.
The iambic bencher by 1 doesn t have this design problem and a little bit of unflatness doesn t bother it.
The by 1 was damaged in a recent move so it was time to shop for something a little more modern.
I am not a great cw person yet.
Tony offers different oto spacing down to 1 2 which i found to be about perfect.
I got a bencher by 2 and a few years later traded it for a st 1.
The by 1 is a well rounded key.
Works good for us qrs operators a whole lot better then the dual paddle.
It s nice and crisp i like mine a lot i m sorry to take so long to describe a problem that s caused by a few thousands of an inch of mis alignment.
I prefer the st 1 single lever a lot.
I bought one of these to replace a bencher by 1 i bought in 1980.
Having knocked out more than half the u s.
But for a first paddle you d have to look long and hard to find a better key to start out with.
Very smooth built like a tank and heavy.
