[CW] touch paddle speed, keyer 'dit' and 'dah' memories

[M.Wood]

Thanks to many of you who responded to my query about your experience with 
touch paddles. 

One issue that has arisen is the speed at which one can comfortably send with 
touch paddles. Scott N4RI suggested that at speeds 35wpm and higher the touch 
paddle was difficult to use. Since I cannot copy faster than 18wpm, I had not 
tried higher speeds. When I tried to go faster, I found that I could without 
too much trouble. However, I did hit a barrier. 

Using the keyer supplied by the maker of the touch paddles (cwtouchkeyer.com, 
based on jackson harbour press keyer) I found that, indeed, at around 35WPM 
the touch paddle became unstable in my fist and I began to make a lot of 
errors. However, when I turned the "dit" and "dah" memories off, I was able 
to send at that speed with only occasional errors. As for 40WPM and above I 
can't say, because I can't reliably send at that speed with any equipment!

The upshot of all this is that the touch paddles, with a keyer with 'dit' and 
'dah' memories in activated, work well at speeds up to about 30WPM. I quickly 
developed a feel for the paddles, and can send quite comfortably at 20 or 25. 
After about 30WPM, certainly by 35WPM in my estimation, one would want to 
turn off the 'dit' and 'dah' memories. At 40WPM and above, a single paddle 
might well give better results, as some of you suggested to me. (The speed 
measurements  given here are from the keyer itself, which reports character 
speed upon command.)

--Mike K2CSJ