AmateurRadio.com

Hidden in a nondescript mountain location in eastern Pennsylvania, the highly trained squirrels at the Radio Artisan Lab have been working feverishly lately on the Arduino keyer code.  Besides being amazed that squirrels can code in C or even operate computers in the first place, I’m amazed at some of the features they’ve been pumping out. Here are the highlights:

You can now plug a PS2 keyboard right into the keyer, no computer required.

The keyer interfaces with popular logging and contest programs with the new Winkey Emulation feature.

Iambic A and B modes are now available.  Straight key and bug modes are also available as before.

Various timing niceties like wordspace adjust, keying compensation, autospace, and first element extension are now available, along with the existing PTT lead/lag and dit-to-dah ratio features.

There’s now a Dead Operator Watchdog.  If you keel over mid-QSO and one of the paddles gets stuck, the keyer will stop transmitting so you won’t be QRMing the frequency until your unfortunate (or fortunate) XYL finds you.

A few months ago one of the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed new guys wrote some Hellschreiber code on his lunch break.  I’m not sure anyone will use it, but it’s there if some one wants to build a hell beacon or respond back to an unsuspecting CW op in hell.  [insert joke here]

The little rodents tell me there’s more coming.