Intermingling of the Species...The tr(u)SDX Gets an Academy!

Executive Summary

I’ve been a fan of both the (tr)uSDX and the GM0EUL Academy key for a long time.

I'm especially fond of Peter's mounting bracket.  The bracket provides two more axes of adjustment than the fixed orientation of a standard Elecraft mounted key. In any environment, and especially for handheld operation, this flexibility makes operation of the paddles ergonomically dreamy.

When custom orange and blue Academy paddles in my school colors (GO ILL INI) arrived, a thought came along with them. 

That paddle might easily mount and work well with the SDX.

And it did.  In about 45 minutes.

And this shows generically how useful Peter's paddles and mount might be on any small QRP rig.  I'm looking for my QMX as soon as I'm done here! 😊




The Plan

If there wasn't interference in the SDX where I wanted to mount the key, I'd be in the high clover.

I used a 2 mm hex wrench to remove the four hex head screws from the lower side panel of the SDX.  That panel comes off in about 30 seconds.



Looking inside, it’s easy to see that there’s a gap between the two printed circuit boards about 0.55 inches below the front panel. 

This seemed to be an optimal place to drill and tap screws in the plastic for the GM0EUL Elecraft Academy mount, just in case (no pun intended) the screws protruded in (side the) case.  I crack me up some days.....



The Elecraft mounting bracket uses two captive 4-40 thumbscrews to mount to the Elecraft panel.  The idea here is to reproduce the mounting holes on the Elecraft radios (KX2 and KX3) that mate with the bracket.

A 4-40 tap requires 3/32 inch holes. Measuring 0.55 inches below the top of the removed panel, it was a quick matter to drill those holes using the bracket as a template.  Thoughtfully, Peter provided some adjustment space in the bracket screw holes, so the horizontal spacing is not critical.  

Be gentle with the tap - printed plastic is butter compared to aluminum.

The bracket mounted perfectly on the first attempt.



And just to show that not all luck is bad, the panel thickness was exactly that required to capture the screws on the mount without protruding.

Note: Even though screws extending between the two printed circuit boards inside the SDX turned out not to be a concern, that’s still the right location to drill your holes.  This leaves open the possibility of a longer thumbscrew and a nut on the inside panel wall if for some reason you want to permanently or more robustly mount the bracket to the panel.  

And that’s it! Here’s another picture of the key mounted to the SDX.


 And here’s a picture of the key mount from below.


Everything worked out just as I planned (ok, hoped). I find it very handy to use the key in this configuration. As soon as I finish a more robust antenna bracket for the SDX I’ll be able to use it handheld with the GM0EUL paddles, which is my ultimate goal.

All in all, I think the project took about 45 minutes.  My wife might say a wee bit longer, but I was totally in and out before lunch, which is what really counts.

TBH, the plastic threads hold the mount better than I expected. If I'm lucky enough to use this combination so often that the threads in the plastic start to loosen, it’s a simple matter to drill two new holes in the plastic panel and tap them.

Hope you found this interesting. As always, I document my experiences, not recommendations. Please work and ham safely!

Kudos to Peter for a quality key and mount that are useful in many more applications than the Elecraft world.

And if you have any suggestions or improvements, please pass them along.

Scott KA9P/ZF2SC.

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