[CW] From one of the Radio Officers email list members
D.J.J. Ring, Jr.
n1ea at arrl.net
Sun Oct 1 15:34:22 EDT 2023
At Glasgow College of Nautical Studies, our 'ab initio' [meaning "from the
beginning] instructor "Pop" MacDonald would not let anyone near a key until
they could actually read morse at 15 wpm (I might be wrong about the speed
- it was 50 years ago ) His introduction to the whole subject was to sit
at your desk, arm comfortably bent at the elbow and resting on the desk.
Then with your lightly clenched fingers as a fulcrum, raise and lower your
wrist in synch with "dit dah" of the character. This helped to get the
rhythm right. I think it worked - I would say that my receiving was always
subject to mood swings, hangovers, temperature, distractions, boredom, in
fact, all manner of external issues but I was always proud that my sending
was the best it could be due to Pop's rhythm method. Even when I started
using an early Samson electronic key it took me some time to get the
dot/dash balance precisely to my satisfaction. I still smile (and shudder)
when I hear awful morse being sent with badly formed characters and spaces.
73
DR
N1EA
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