hobby #54

Harmonic Telegraph Key Restoration

Rescue and restore antique telegraph keys and sounders from estate sales, then modify them with coils and resonant circuits to produce specific musical tones when keyed. Combines the precision cleaning and disassembly skills from fountain pen restoration with Morse code from ham radio and the coil-winding and frequency response work from guitar pickups. Each restored key becomes a playable musical instrument that can send Morse while producing a tuned pitch for ear training or ensemble performance.

The Sounder Learned to Hold a Pitch

Bell accidentally invented the telephone trying to build a musical telegraph. I'm finishing his original project.

code-a-day tied to this hobby

The Wire That Learned to Listen Selectively Bandpass Filtering

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