[CW] Re: Modes

[Pedro J. Santa]

I understand and agree that things having to do with Morse Code operation
are not necessarily easy at first; it takes time and effort and practice
before the skills become second nature.  I still deny the theory that you
must first learn to send with a straight key; and I don't know from where
some guys are getting that idea.  Not only is that an utterly obsolete mode
of sending code ( and highly prone to injuries ) but learning to send with
it only makes it more difficult to use a keyer and a Iambic paddle, which
are the efficient sending apparatus today.  The best thing is to learn to
send with a keyer and to operate iambically; once you master that, operation
with a straight or with a but can be mastered, although the former will make
you think  while your wrists hurt and your brows sweat, that you're back in
the remote ages-- and the latter, while affording some relief from the
rigors of a straight,  will make you dream you had a fully automatic key
beneath your hand pretty soon! I use a straight from time to time on the air
and also a bug, particularly when the other station utilizes those types of
sending devices and I feel like paying them in kind; but nobody can deny
those are pretty retarded methods of sending code nowadays when compared
with paddles and a keyer.

Pedro KP3X...

p.s. I won't mention the morse keyboards and the computer-assisted
"operators"  I respect them but their operating crutches and work tools are
not deserving of much admiration from this end--unless particular
disabilities require their use.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jerry W. O'Dell" <jwodell@provide.net>
To: <pjs123@attglobal.net>
Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2003 7:43 AM
Subject: Modes


> No offense, but I absolutely deny that sending with an iambic is easier,
> for the first year or so. I must have known 20 people who tried and
failed.
> Took me 3 years, but I finally mastered the confounded thing.
>
> One nice thing -- it keeps the paddle from skittering around the operating
> table!
>
> 73 jerry w8gnd
>
>
>