Side question: how can a Morse code key be so expensive? o_o
You're probably thinking of a Morse code key like Samuel Morse, the simple switch that works by an up and down motion.
Back in the late 1800's early 1900's if you were a telegraph operator as your trade you'd spend 12 hours shifts on send or receive and if send you'd spend 12 hours "pounding brass." They discovered carpal tunnel but it was called "glass arm" and people started to develop keys with a side to side motion. As time went on a company still in business today as Vibroplex came up with the semi-automatic key we call "bugs" for slang. Google a Vibroplex Bug and you'll see it's a bit of precision machining and assembly to make a working unit and that's part of the cost. It's also somewhat a supply and demand issue as there aren't that many needed. My gear is from the late 1970's as if it was taken care of it's a few hundred dollars/your lifetime as a user. These instruments sent the dit's at via a weight and spring mechanism and I like what I read about then in an old Air Force manual. "the bug wasn't invented to send code faster, but easier." So back to the telegraph office. These things were started in like 1904, and now you've got a bug! You can send 35 WPM fast without killing yourself or ending your career.
Now there's such a thing as a designer Morse code key as well, just precision parts and assembly and they are things of beauty as well. I however have expenses tied up in Vibroplex units that are works of art but also precision instruments in their own right.
N2QFD{Queen City BBS}:// "Does this need to be said? Does this need to be said by me? Does this need to be said by me right now?" - Craig Ferguson
--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Raspberry Pi/32)
* Origin: Queen City BBS (21:1/154)