Some ops love them some ops don t.
Bencher by 1 review.
I prefer the st 1 single lever a lot.
Tony offers different oto spacing down to 1 2 which i found to be about perfect.
The bencher by 1 iambic paddle is just one in a series are dual lever iambic paddles.
But for a first paddle you d have to look long and hard to find a better key to start out with.
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.
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.
States on the old ameco straight key and used it for a few late night ragchews it had become.
I got a bencher by 2 and a few years later traded it for a st 1.
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.
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.
The rubber feet were loose because of this making the key dance around the table and rock diagonally in use.
And since you ll probably own one someday anyway you might as well buy one right off the bat and save the suspense.
The by 1 is a well rounded key.
Brought it home hooked it up and realized just how much i liked it.
As a long time user of the by 1 bencher paddles think 32 years i ve always wanted to try a higher end key.
Very smooth built like a tank and heavy.
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.
The heavy steel bases and and non skid feet keep it in place while operating.
I picked this up in huntsville at the hamfest.
I am not a great cw person yet.
The iambic bencher by 1 doesn t have this design problem and a little bit of unflatness doesn t bother it.
Self adjusting needle bearings and gold plated solid silver contacts.
Having knocked out more than half the u s.
Works good for us qrs operators a whole lot better then the dual paddle.
One of the things i dislike about the by 1 series is their tendency to fly apart under vigorous keying.
The by 1 was damaged in a recent move so it was time to shop for something a little more modern.
Bnr by 1 a couple of quick adjustments and it was good to go.
I learned cw on a set of borrowed bencher by 1 iambic paddles.
Ultimately i had to give those paddles back to their owner and i ve been paddle less ever since.
Like the vibroplex bug the bencher by 1 is everywhere.
