I recently purchased an electronics kit for sending and receiving morse code. It has a port where you can plug in a telegraph key (I bought a red aluminum Iambic paddle), and a headphone jack. It comes as an unassembled group of parts and requires assembly and soldering to complete the kit.
I also got a trainer device that plugs into a USB port on your computer and works with the https://hamradio.solutions/vband/ website.
Here is the schematic:
I assembled it mostly correctly. Unfortunately, I wasn’t very observant when it came to inserting the diodes. I soldered two of them in backwards. I spent some time trying to fix my error, but I think I failed, because when I applied power to the device, it started smoking. I guess my “smoke test” was conclusive, I screwed it up.
It was still a fun use of an evening putting it together. I put on some Tangerine Dream (Dominion, London Concert) and soldered away.
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter what the results were, I still don’t have the proper antenna setup on my house. I haven’t yet decided if I’m going to devote myself to HAM radio or not. It seems a little redundant when we have access to email and cell phones. However, I can see the importance of HAM radio during emergencies, I just don’t think I’ll get involved enough to devote my time and money to HAM radio use. It’s an expensive hobby to get started talking over hundreds of miles, and I’m not sure I’m ready to purchase and install what I need. Though, I did get my Technicians license, so I can legally play around with it if I want to.