Bencher Keyer Does Double Duty

I had thought it’d make sense for a keyer plugged into a modern HF transceiver to be able to function as a PTT switch when using the radio in a voice mode. I searched through the radio’s enormous menu, but found nothing.

Then I thought, “What if I just wired it up to both jacks?”

So I tried it… like this…

…and it worked!

Works fine for Sideband, AM, and FM. And it doesn’t appear to adversely affect any of the modes, as far as I can tell.

Sure, yes, the MOX button is right there. But I can find the paddle without even looking. And I just find it more natural to push to talk, let go to listen. (See, the MOX is push once to TX, push again to RX.)

I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before, given how many times I’d wished the keyer would do PTT. Silly.