KT5X's notes on restoring a Standard Radio bug, c. Oct 2007.

Status:  Scarce.  Fewer than 40 known in collections, a scant handful in maroon.  The first few times one of these keys showed up on eBay I wondered what they were.  They looked like they were very well made.  Two in good condition brought big money.  Questions posed to collectors about the key brought almost no information.  "Early thirties," they said, "nothing known about the manufacturer.  Scarce, but not really rare."  That means most collectors have one or have seen one, but good luck finding one yourself.

Comment
I gathered pictures of a few and learned that some had labels, some did not.  The labels said, Standard Radio Company of New York, and serial numbers were always between 1,500 and 1,599.  Odd, to say the least.  I had seen them with black bases, nickel, green, and even a red one from the Willer collection.  i was to learn that was not original paint, but found a dark maroon one now owned by Gil, that is original.  When this rusty relic appeared on eBay, I thought I would make an offer.  maybe it could be repaired.

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It took over a week soaking in WD40 to oosen all the screws and remove the hardware.  I sanded down the base to find a very rough substrate.  Here I have applied and sanded about ten coats of auto primer.

To my surprise, the hardware was not terribly corroded.  Cleaning and a little hand rubbing made it look pretty good.  The dash lever was frozen though.  That took days of careful work to free.

Oddly, the key arrived in its original box.  I almost forgot about it in my excitement to restore the key itself.  The box says, "Special Order Army Air Corps 2-1-43."  Wow!  The mystery is largely solved.

This key was not made in the thirties at all.  It was made for the Air Corps in Wordl War II.  The military had likely made the request to Vibroplex, who else, for a bug that would hold its adjustment in the vibrating environment of those big propeller planes!  the solution was the hefty hardware and the split posts, one of which is shown here.

The split post gripped the adjustment screw, vibration would not change it.  Also, a pilot could even adjust it with one hand if he needed to.  Yes, the fighters had a Morse code key in their cockpits, too.  They sent back in five letter code groups using a sliding window decoder, a new one was issued each day.

This key has the tell-tale wear on the pendulum where it touched the damper.  Such wear can only be caused by the vibration of riding a train, a ship, or in this case, a propeller aircraft.  They must have been asked for 1,500 of them, and that is why they began serials on non-military keys made for friends at 1,500.  They didn't make many of those, however, statistical anaylis would suggest no more than 120.  the rarest color was maroon, only one known in collections, so that is what I restored.  At first, my paint was too red, then finally dark maroon looked like the original.  I added the pin-stripes in their style.

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Then reassembled the key.  This key adjusts better, more preciely and easily, than any I have ever used, and I have used a few.  The movement is crisp with no play whatsoever.  The pendulum is light.  It makes outstanding code, and has become my most favorite key to use.  I have located only fourteen others in collections, half from the few let out to civilians, the other half without labels which were the military keys.  I think mostly, pilots weren't too excited about keys, and they were largely discarded, whereas communications people tended to keep their ubiquitous J-36's as a souvenire.