When I was educated morsecode at school (nautical college) I operated the straight up and down key with my right had. At that time, my teacher had an elbug, which was a japanese modified paddle and a large circuitboard with many transistors (it was in the mid 70's). Every student wanted to try that elbug ofcourse. I was no different but there was a big BUT.... My teacher Jaap would cut off my right hand if ever touched the paddle with that same right (straight key) hand. Reason for that, he said, was not to mix up the different keying ways and keep up the high-quality keying capabilty with the straight key. Well he trained me up to 25 wpm with the straight key and I passed the exam with near perfect morsecode. On the side I built more than one electronic key and kept operating that with my left hand. I never regretted that and am still gratefull for so much wisdom of my teacher. One nice spinn-off was e.g. that in contests (with no computer at hand at that time) I could write with my rigt hand and send morse with my left hand.
After a year or two I bought a Vibroplex bug. I started out operating it with my left hand but that was very confusing so I changed the vibroplex to my righ hand. Many years later I still send lefthanded with a squeeze paddle and righthanded with the vibroplex bug. I can change in a second without any problem and never mix up the two ways of operating. Thank you Jaap. 73 Arie PA3A _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [email protected] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
