The "banana boat swing" is a combination of pure laziness and the limitations of many Vibroplex bugs. Vibroplex made many, many bugs with thick springs that prevent their dit rates being slowed below 35 wpm or so. So QRSing below that speed (most marine communications occurred between 15 and 20 wpm with some operators I knew working a 10 wpm or less) meant machine-gun dits with very long dahs and spaces.
I had a buddy who came ashore and worked at KPH on the California coast for years with one of those bugs. To tame it (he as a stickler for good CW) he hung a huge cable clamp on the pendulum so he could easily run at 15 to 20 wpm - what nearly everyone used in that service. I have that bug now. His widow gave it to me when he became an SK. And I have the cable clamp. It works great, but I can't understand why his right arm didn't look like Popeye's after using it for years, Hi! I like to practice on my bug with a computer decoder that is very, very finicky about spacing and element lengths. CW GET is one such program that really hates to decode anything but keyboard sending. My goal is to make it decode my bug fist reliably. I used an iambic keyer for years and it was sweet, but it completely ruined my fist on a bug so I put the keyer away. Ron AC7AC -----Original Message----- The hardest CW to copy (for me anyway) has insufficient spacing between letters or words. This is exactly what a keyer does NOT help you with! The operator has to learn to recognize what good CW sounds like. Does sending with a straight key help with that? Maybe, but I doubt it. Many of you have heard old-timers with bugs sending with the "banana-boat swing" (dits way too fast for the dahs) or the "Lake Erie swing" (think about sending from a rolling ship). These are generally considered 'bad CW', but they aren't difficult to copy. The techniques of sending with an iambic paddle, a bug and a straight key are very different. I don't think learning one helps you with the others. ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
