Re: [Elecraft] Iambic Keying (WAS: Straight key first?)
I passed 13 wpm to pass General in the early 80s and never made a single CW QSO - didn't even use a key to practice. But when I passed the no-code Extra in 2007 I decided to work CW until I could copy at least 20 wpm. Bought a paddle and decided to learn to use it with my left hand so my dominant right hand could take notes. I also decided to set the paddle up with dits on the left since this appeared to be the way the majority of paddle users did it. This way I could pass my paddle to most right handers and there would be no need to reverse the sense of the paddle. Similarly, I could move most other's paddle to the left side of the radio and jump right in. I've reached 20 wpm now and wish I'd discovered the joy of CW sooner. Will, AI4VE __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Iambic Keying (WAS: Straight key first?)
Good for you Will!! I have been doing CW for 59 years and having tried RTTY and all of the digital modes, I still think CW is a truly FUN part of the hobby which so far, digital cannot replace. 73, Tom - W4BQF -Original Message- From: elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net [mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of William Ravenel Sent: Thursday, June 30, 2011 7:37 AM To: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Iambic Keying (WAS: Straight key first?) I passed 13 wpm to pass General in the early 80s and never made a single CW QSO - didn't even use a key to practice. But when I passed the no-code Extra in 2007 I decided to work CW until I could copy at least 20 wpm. Bought a paddle and decided to learn to use it with my left hand so my dominant right hand could take notes. I also decided to set the paddle up with dits on the left since this appeared to be the way the majority of paddle users did it. This way I could pass my paddle to most right handers and there would be no need to reverse the sense of the paddle. Similarly, I could move most other's paddle to the left side of the radio and jump right in. I've reached 20 wpm now and wish I'd discovered the joy of CW sooner. Will, AI4VE __ 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 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Iambic Keying (WAS: Straight key first?)
Hi, Phil; Good story. Since you were an examiner, I thought I'd pass this along. I took my 2nd Class Telegraph examination in Oklahoma City in 1978. My mother had to drive me from Enid, OK because I didn't have a driver's license. There were probably 70 people standing in the hallway waiting for their ham tests when the examiner came out and shouted Is the candidated for the 2nd Class Radiotelegraph examination here? The crowd fell silent and I had to walk past all of them to go into the examination room alone with the examiner. He fired up the CW test then left the room. The test finished, I put my pencil down and waited. No examiner. I didn't know what to do. I waited a short time, maybe three minutes, then I heard a knock on the door. I got up and answered it. The examiner had locked himself out of the examination room. I made a comment that something like this could be considered funny. Mr. Stoneface said, No, pause it couldn't. He took the exam with him when I finished it and promptly lost it. I wrote several letters asking the FCC to find the results of my examination but none of these produced any results. I finally sent in a renewal or request for another examination where there was a field asking what other licenses I held. I wrote, I have no idea, the examiner lost my test. About a month later (for a total of about 11 months), I got the results of my test, I had passed. Rick, AA5S On Wed, Jun 29, 2011 at 10:57 PM, Phil Kane k2...@kanafi.org wrote: On 6/29/2011 8:48 PM, WILLIS COOKE wrote: For that matter, it would be pretty hard to head copy and then write a full minute with no errors to pass the FCC code test. Head copy is pretty much a ham radio thing. Starting in the late 1960s I was one of the FCC code examiners in San Francisco. One day an old timer coast station operator came up for the Radiotelegraph First Class code test - 25 wpm - where a mill could be used. He said that he wanted the First before he retired. He set it up, and just before I started the tape he asked whether it was OK to smoke during the test. In those days, no problem. He put on the cans and said start the tape. He reached into his pocket, took out a cigarette. Then he reached into another pocket, and pulled out a book of matches, lit the cigarette, put the extinguished match in an ashtray, dropped the matchbook on the floor, bent down to pick it up, put it back in his pocket, sat back for a few seconds, and then started typing like a madman about halfway into the 5 minute tape - perfect copy. When the tape was finished, he turned to me and said didn't think I could do it, did you, sonny?! Something I will never forget. -- 73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane Elecraft K2/100 s/n 5402 Retired and loving every minute of it Work was getting in the way of my hobbies __ 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 -- Rick McClelland, AA5S Fort Collins, CO __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Iambic Keying (WAS: Straight key first?)
I've heard several stories like this. It's a special skill, which is different from what most of us who learned the code as hams have developed. The text goes into the brain, where it is buffered, and then out the fingers. In some cases the people who can do this may not be able to tell you the content of what they copied. And they can do it with plain text, code groups, or a language they don't understand. On 6/29/2011 9:57 PM, Phil Kane wrote: On 6/29/2011 8:48 PM, WILLIS COOKE wrote: For that matter, it would be pretty hard to head copy and then write a full minute with no errors to pass the FCC code test. Head copy is pretty much a ham radio thing. Starting in the late 1960s I was one of the FCC code examiners in San Francisco. One day an old timer coast station operator came up for the Radiotelegraph First Class code test - 25 wpm - where a mill could be used. He said that he wanted the First before he retired. He set it up, and just before I started the tape he asked whether it was OK to smoke during the test. In those days, no problem. He put on the cans and said start the tape. He reached into his pocket, took out a cigarette. Then he reached into another pocket, and pulled out a book of matches, lit the cigarette, put the extinguished match in an ashtray, dropped the matchbook on the floor, bent down to pick it up, put it back in his pocket, sat back for a few seconds, and then started typing like a madman about halfway into the 5 minute tape - perfect copy. When the tape was finished, he turned to me and said didn't think I could do it, did you, sonny?! Something I will never forget. -- 73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane Elecraft K2/100 s/n 5402 Retired and loving every minute of it Work was getting in the way of my hobbies -- Vic, K2VCO Fresno CA http://www.qsl.net/k2vco/ __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Iambic Keying (WAS: Straight key first?)
On 6/29/2011 9:06 PM, Duncan Carter wrote: I'm a leftie who was forced to be right handed in elementary school. Same here only it didn't work with me. I reverted to left-handed printing as soon as I hit middle school. While there, my new found Elmer [a leftie] told me We will learn to send with our right hands so we can keep a legible log with our lefts. In those days, the FCC required you to make a log entry every time you transmitted ... anything, regardless of whether or not it resulted in a Q. I normally paddle right to this day, although I can easily paddle left too. My paddle is standard, dits on the thumb. I cannot write right-handed however. The ability to change the paddle config in Elecraft rigs has been more of a usable feature for me than one would think. 73, Fred K6DGW - Northern California Contest Club - CU in the 2011 Cal QSO Party 1-2 Oct 2011 - www.cqp.org __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Iambic Keying (WAS: Straight key first?)
Vic, I wonder if this is a special skill or an example of some normal human ability which has not been suffocated at an early age by some poor teaching process, at school for instance, In the world of music some of our friends, and many others of course, can listen to a short work which they have not heard before (head copy into memory), and then play it back (fingers). As far as I know these friends of ours all took their first music lesson at a *very* early age before starting to go to school, and were not taught to read notes (the dits and dahs) during their first lessons. Instead they were introduced to some other fundamentals of music such as patterns and time, then notes. 73, Geoff GM4ESD On June 30, 2011 at 4:05 PM, Vic K2VCO wrote: I've heard several stories like this. It's a special skill, which is different from what most of us who learned the code as hams have developed. The text goes into the brain, where it is buffered, and then out the fingers. In some cases the people who can do this may not be able to tell you the content of what they copied. And they can do it with plain text, code groups, or a language they don't understand. On 6/29/2011 9:57 PM, Phil Kane wrote: On 6/29/2011 8:48 PM, WILLIS COOKE wrote: For that matter, it would be pretty hard to head copy and then write a full minute with no errors to pass the FCC code test. Head copy is pretty much a ham radio thing. Starting in the late 1960s I was one of the FCC code examiners in San Francisco. One day an old timer coast station operator came up for the Radiotelegraph First Class code test - 25 wpm - where a mill could be used. snip __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Iambic Keying (WAS: Straight key first?)
You're bringing back some memories. One of the questions in the pool of my 10 schematic drawing or other short answer questions was: Draw a schematic diagram of a maritime battery charging system containing a six pole double throw switch such that each of a pair of batteries is either connected to a load or a charger (and is swapped when the switch is thrown.) I don't recall the exact phrasing of the question but I do recall that the toupee was spinning on top of my sixteen year old head as I tried to work through this question. I eventually drew the correct diagram. I think the 2nd telegraph's written examination was the most difficult of all the written tests I took, including the 1st phone written. I don't want to start a debate here, that was just my impression. On Thu, Jun 30, 2011 at 1:38 PM, Mike Morrow k...@earthlink.net wrote: I like **some** iambic keyers. The important thing in any discussion of iambic keyers is WHAT MODE(S) does it use. When an iambic dit-dash sequence is being sent, mode B keyers send a dit if the paddles are released during a dash, or a dash if the paddles are released during a dit. In contrast, mode A keyers never send a dit or dash unless the dit or dash paddle is closed. If one is accustomed to one mode, using a keyer in the other mode will be hell. It is very important that mode selection be available in any iambic keyer. There is no paddle manipulation or any other identifiable advantage to mode B, but paddle release timing is much more critical than for mode A. The incompetent and careless design of MOST commercial ham rigs provides Mode B ONLY. When I asked the ICOM folks at their Dayton booth about the reasons for that, the staff was dismissive as if this was an unimportant question and they didn't care to waste their time on answering it. No Icom garbage for me, ever! This is another area where Elecraft really comes through, with full mode A or B support on all their transceivers. And straight key use? I think it is appropriate to learn first on the straight key, if only for the tradition of it. Back in the days when when Morse exams were given by the FCC, there once was a sending test that required straight key use. Also back in those days, the military sometimes used Morse and straight keys were all that were provided on many radio sets...a young person just might have served in the military back then. But...today it's only tradition, just like the use of Morse itself. Rick wrote: I took my 2nd Class Telegraph examination in Oklahoma City in 1978. I took my Second Class Telegraph exam at the Kansas City FCC office, about that same time. He fired up the CW test then left the room. The test finished, I put my pencil down and waited. No examiner. The Morse exam for the Second Class had four parts, each requiring perfect performance for one minute out of five: 1. 20-wpm plain language copy. 2. 16-wpm five-character code groups copy, including numbers and punctuation. 3. 20-wpm plain language, sent with FCC-provided straight key. 4. 16-wpm five-character code groups, sent with FCC-provided straight key. The only part I had trouble with was item 2. Five or six errors made in five minutes spread just right could kill any one-minute of otherwise good copy. (And by trouble, I mean that I didn't pass my on first attempt.) More than 20 years ago, the FCC got really lazy and decided to issue Morse credit for the commercial license based on the applicant holding the Amateur Extra license. What a joke! He took the exam with him when I finished it and promptly lost it. That technical written exam, Element 6, had 90 multiple-choice questions and 10 schematic drawing or other short answer questions. My examiner told me that I had a passing score based on the other 90 and did not grade those 10 questions. I never took a written FCC exam anywhere that wasn't graded before I left the office or field location. ...the examiner lost my test. That sort of shabby outcome was too often the case with government administered exams. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's exam results for the Senior Reactor Operator license was delayed for several people at a plant I worked 30 years ago. When results finally showed up, the office admitted that the completed exams for these people had slipped behind someone's desk! Government...gotta love it. Mike / KK5F __ 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 -- Rick McClelland, AA5S Fort Collins, CO __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help:
Re: [Elecraft] Iambic Keying (WAS: Straight key first?)
I find this thread a bit strange. There is little doubt in my mind that the best way to send a long message with minimum errors is to send a prepared file by computer with one on the digital modes. Better yet, send it by email over the Internet and skip ham radio all-together. For contesting, pre- prepared messages by F keys is really neat, fast and effective. It is easier to send good code by hand with less practice with an iambic keyer and a decent set of paddles. It can be done with a semi-automatic key (Bug) or a hand key (Straight Key) but it takes a bit more practice and perhaps skill from the operator. My personal selection is usually a Bug or Straight Key, but that implies only that I think it more fun and satisfying, not better. I would also like to make some QSOs with a TBL-6 transmitter and an RBB receiver. They weigh in excess of 2000 pounds more than my K3 and cost 5 or 10 times as much as my K3 without considering 1943 dollars versus 2007 dollars. This does not imply that the TBL-6/RBB is superior to the K3 or that I would like to use them in the next DX contest in lieu of my K3. Willis 'Cookie' Cooke K5EWJ Trustee N5BPS, USS Cavalla, USS Stewart From: Ron D'Eau Claire r...@cobi.biz To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Sent: Wed, June 29, 2011 11:07:42 AM Subject: [Elecraft] Iambic Keying (WAS: Straight key first?) I found Iambic keying wonderful to use. I stopped only because it *ruined* my fist for a bug, Hi! To make a C you just squeeze both paddles with the dash paddle closing slightly ahead of the dot. To make a Q you just hold the dash paddle and tap the dot paddle at any time during the second dash. Press the dash paddle and immediately tap the dot, and you get a K. And so on. Very simple finger movements. Minimal timing demands on the operator. But it does take a little practice. And some operators aren't interested in doing that. That's fine, but it doesn't mean that Iambic keying isn't a *great* way to produce CW for those who enjoy it. Ron AC7AC __ 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 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Iambic Keying (WAS: Straight key first?)
Another advantage of iambic keying is that it's easy to send with your non-dominant hand, leaving the other hand free to write without juggling the pencil. Think about stringed instruments -- CW is music, after all. One of my elmers suggested this decades ago and I've been sending left-handed ever since. Dunno about single-lever keying as I haven't progressed to that yet. Only problem is in multi-op situations when you have to remember to swap the paddles in the software before turning it over to the next op. 73 -- Carl WS7L __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Iambic Keying (WAS: Straight key first?)
OK, I have made a vow to learn to send with my right hand within the next year, so my left hand is free to write. Then I will not have to change any of the transmitters to reverse the paddles anymore. Being a Southpaw can be a good thing! 73, Don W3FPR On 6/29/2011 9:26 PM, Carl Clawson wrote: Another advantage of iambic keying is that it's easy to send with your non-dominant hand, leaving the other hand free to write without juggling the pencil. Think about stringed instruments -- CW is music, after all. One of my elmers suggested this decades ago and I've been sending left-handed ever since. Dunno about single-lever keying as I haven't progressed to that yet. Only problem is in multi-op situations when you have to remember to swap the paddles in the software before turning it over to the next op. __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Iambic Keying (WAS: Straight key first?)
On Wed, Jun 29, 2011 at 8:26 PM, Carl Clawson carlclaw...@frontier.comwrote: Another advantage of iambic keying is that it's easy to send with your non-dominant hand, leaving the other hand free... I remember as a Novice reading about legendary contester Katashi Nose, KH6IJ, who sent with one hand (bug) and logged with the other. He could manage 70 wpm in an era when 20 was fast. My attempts to emulate him and send left-handed were not crowned with success, to put it mildly. Tony KT0NY __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Iambic Keying (WAS: Straight key first?)
I learned with a straight key and a stick. It took me about half of one QSO to figure out swapping a pencil back and forth, along with throwing the t-r switch, and the mute switch, adjusting the tx, then keying the key, and reversing all that, pretty near made it necessary to use my off hand for the key... keeping the pencil corralled was a good thing. So when paddles came along, it was pretty near easy to move to a nice paddle, keyer, and still keep the pencil corralled. It wasn't until just a couple years ago that I had the fun of playing with a Halli T-O keyer... and a single lever Vibroplex. Remember when that was THE setup? Well.. I rather had a tussle with it, so am back with the paddles now, with 8 on the desk now. And one Junkers straight key. Still keeping the pencil or keyboard in my left hand.It is a lot easier to write with my left hand and key with the right, although I can do it the other way, for those few times that someone has the paddles backwards for me. Bu t it doesn't sound good. Way past the Lake Erie swing... --... ...-- Dale - WC7S in Wy Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2011 21:59:51 -0400 From: w3...@embarqmail.com To: carlclaw...@frontier.com CC: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Iambic Keying (WAS: Straight key first?) OK, I have made a vow to learn to send with my right hand within the next year, so my left hand is free to write. Then I will not have to change any of the transmitters to reverse the paddles anymore. Being a Southpaw can be a good thing! 73, Don W3FPR __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Iambic Keying (WAS: Straight key first?)
Or you could do what I did: shatter my right wrist in so many places they had to pin it together. For eight weeks I was in a cast that held my hand immobile; thus necessitating my entry into the world of left handedness. I learned to do every thing with my left hand, most especially how to write. Made me ambidextrous in many of the things I do. I could even throw a baseball with my non-dominant hand. Could not throw it fast but I could hit the target. This accident interrupted my entry into amateur radio for many years. The theory was simple but my right hand would not send CW. By the time I thought to try my left hand other interested had taken over. Oh well, it would have been nice to have gotten my ticket in 1966 or so. I was learning how to send on a bug at the same time. The point being I can still write with my left hand if necessary but I have found it simple to send and write with the same hand. There is plenty of time as long as you copy in your head for a few seconds (words). Now to learn how to send left handed to ease the pain in my right wrist. 73, Kevin. KD5ONS On Wed, 29 Jun 2011 18:59:51 -0700, Don Wilhelm w3...@embarqmail.com wrote: OK, I have made a vow to learn to send with my right hand within the next year, so my left hand is free to write. Then I will not have to change any of the transmitters to reverse the paddles anymore. Being a Southpaw can be a good thing! 73, Don W3FPR __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Iambic Keying (WAS: Straight key first?)
Heh. I just copy in my head. Have pretty much since the beginning. The only time I've ever written down anything during cw q's has been 1) traffic handling and 2) logging. When I remember to, lately, yes, I've slipped into lazy habits. With this in mind, I am still baffled when I hear people, especially old school military ops, who say they can't copy code unless they write it down or type on a typewriter. The human brain is a strange beast, and no mistake. -- Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV - Erie, PA Phone: (814) 860-3194 or 888-75-BUDDY On Jun 29, 2011, at 10:13 PM, Dale Putnam wrote: I learned with a straight key and a stick. It took me about half of one QSO to figure out swapping a pencil back and forth, along with throwing the t-r switch, and the mute switch, adjusting the tx, then keying the key, and reversing all that, pretty near made it necessary to use my off hand for the key... keeping the pencil corralled was a good thing. So when paddles came along, it was pretty near easy to move to a nice paddle, keyer, and still keep the pencil corralled. It wasn't until just a couple years ago that I had the fun of playing with a Halli T-O keyer... and a single lever Vibroplex. Remember when that was THE setup? Well.. I rather had a tussle with it, so am back with the paddles now, with 8 on the desk now. And one Junkers straight key. Still keeping the pencil or keyboard in my left hand.It is a lot easier to write with my left hand and key with the right, although I can do it the other way, for those few times that someone has the paddles backwards for me. Bu t it doesn't sound good. Way past the Lake Erie swing... --... ...-- Dale - WC7S in Wy Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2011 21:59:51 -0400 From: w3...@embarqmail.com To: carlclaw...@frontier.com CC: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Iambic Keying (WAS: Straight key first?) OK, I have made a vow to learn to send with my right hand within the next year, so my left hand is free to write. Then I will not have to change any of the transmitters to reverse the paddles anymore. Being a Southpaw can be a good thing! 73, Don W3FPR __ 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 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Iambic Keying (WAS: Straight key first?)
The M/G is only slightly lighter (800 lbs) than the TBL (900 lbs) and is located on the main deck cabin just forward of the crew quarters and about75 ft aft of the radio room. The TCE M/G is in the same compartment and only weighs about 150 lbs. I think of these 200 watt and 125 watt behemouths every time someone complains about the light weight of the K3. This refers to the USS Stewart, DE238. The TBL on the Cavalla was removed and replaced with a Collins URC-32 SSB 500 watt transceiver during a Cold War retrofit. Willis 'Cookie' Cooke K5EWJ Trustee N5BPS, USS Cavalla, USS Stewart From: Rose elecraftcov...@gmail.com To: WILLIS COOKE wrco...@yahoo.com Sent: Wed, June 29, 2011 10:17:53 PM Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Iambic Keying (WAS: Straight key first?) And the TBL was powered by a M/G set somewhere below (:-) 73! Ken __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Iambic Keying (WAS: Straight key first?)
For the commercial and military ops, it was all traffic handling and if you did not have a written copy, you didn't copy it. It is pretty hard to head copy a very long message if it is five letter code groups or in a language that you are not fluent. For that matter, it would be pretty hard to head copy and then write a full minute with no errors to pass the FCC code test. Head copy is pretty much a ham radio thing. Willis 'Cookie' Cooke K5EWJ Trustee N5BPS, USS Cavalla, USS Stewart From: Buddy Brannan bu...@brannan.name To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Sent: Wed, June 29, 2011 10:34:10 PM Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Iambic Keying (WAS: Straight key first?) Heh. I just copy in my head. Have pretty much since the beginning. The only time I've ever written down anything during cw q's has been 1) traffic handling and 2) logging. When I remember to, lately, yes, I've slipped into lazy habits. With this in mind, I am still baffled when I hear people, especially old school military ops, who say they can't copy code unless they write it down or type on a typewriter. The human brain is a strange beast, and no mistake. -- Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV - Erie, PA Phone: (814) 860-3194 or 888-75-BUDDY On Jun 29, 2011, at 10:13 PM, Dale Putnam wrote: I learned with a straight key and a stick. It took me about half of one QSO to figure out swapping a pencil back and forth, along with throwing the t-r switch, and the mute switch, adjusting the tx, then keying the key, and reversing all that, pretty near made it necessary to use my off hand for the key... keeping the pencil corralled was a good thing. So when paddles came along, it was pretty near easy to move to a nice paddle, keyer, and still keep the pencil corralled. It wasn't until just a couple years ago that I had the fun of playing with a Halli T-O keyer... and a single lever Vibroplex. Remember when that was THE setup? Well.. I rather had a tussle with it, so am back with the paddles now, with 8 on the desk now. And one Junkers straight key. Still keeping the pencil or keyboard in my left hand.It is a lot easier to write with my left hand and key with the right, although I can do it the other way, for those few times that someone has the paddles backwards for me. Bu t it doesn't sound good. Way past the Lake Erie swing... --... ...-- Dale - WC7S in Wy Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2011 21:59:51 -0400 From: w3...@embarqmail.com To: carlclaw...@frontier.com CC: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Iambic Keying (WAS: Straight key first?) OK, I have made a vow to learn to send with my right hand within the next year, so my left hand is free to write. Then I will not have to change any of the transmitters to reverse the paddles anymore. Being a Southpaw can be a good thing! 73, Don W3FPR __ 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 __ 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 __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Iambic Keying (WAS: Straight key first?)
When I passed the Extra test in 1958, I copied just over a minute continuously which was my printing speed limit; my script speed limit was lower. At that time I could copy code at 55 wpm on my electric Olympia but I've never been able to type that fast on a computer keyboard. Since then, I've had no trouble copying that fast in my head, even after a 24 year lay off. I'm a leftie who was forced to be right handed in elementary school. Dunc, W5DC __ 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
Re: [Elecraft] Iambic Keying (WAS: Straight key first?)
On 6/29/2011 8:48 PM, WILLIS COOKE wrote: For that matter, it would be pretty hard to head copy and then write a full minute with no errors to pass the FCC code test. Head copy is pretty much a ham radio thing. Starting in the late 1960s I was one of the FCC code examiners in San Francisco. One day an old timer coast station operator came up for the Radiotelegraph First Class code test - 25 wpm - where a mill could be used. He said that he wanted the First before he retired. He set it up, and just before I started the tape he asked whether it was OK to smoke during the test. In those days, no problem. He put on the cans and said start the tape. He reached into his pocket, took out a cigarette. Then he reached into another pocket, and pulled out a book of matches, lit the cigarette, put the extinguished match in an ashtray, dropped the matchbook on the floor, bent down to pick it up, put it back in his pocket, sat back for a few seconds, and then started typing like a madman about halfway into the 5 minute tape - perfect copy. When the tape was finished, he turned to me and said didn't think I could do it, did you, sonny?! Something I will never forget. -- 73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane Elecraft K2/100 s/n 5402 Retired and loving every minute of it Work was getting in the way of my hobbies __ 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
