[CW] W6BNB Bob Shrader's method of using a straight key.

[Richard Knoppow]

    Not a way I ever send. I think the "grip" is very individual. I use 
a pretty much conservative grip, most of the force coming from my first 
finger. My first finger resting near the edge of the knob near the 
center, thumb resting on the left edge of the knob but not under the 
knob, ring finger on the right side of the knob and other fingers curled 
out of way. I vary whether the first or ring finger does the work as I 
get fatigued. I have always had a good fist on a conventional key. Max 
speed now (I'm 83) is maybe 22 WPM but in the past I could do over 25 WPM.
    The design of a straight key is, as everyone knows, such that the 
hand is in an unnatural position so its inherently fatiguing. That is 
the reason for the origin of the side swiper and bug. If you rest your 
hand on a table it will naturally relax with the palm outward and the 
thumb up. If you now point it ahead, as in using a straight key, you 
will feel the stretch across the forearm. Much the same thing happens 
when you type and is why both typing and using a straight key can cause 
carpal tunnel inflammation. There have been sideways typewriter 
keyboards made in the past.
    As a result of the inherently fatiguing arrangement of a straight 
key there probably as many grips for it as ways to leave a lover.

On 1/19/2024 8:49 AM, D.J.J. Ring, Jr. wrote:
> Hello Chris, NW6V,
> 
> I want to ask you what you think about W6BNB's unique method of using a 
> straight key by flipping the the middle, ring, and pinky fingers downward.
> 
> Have you ever tried that?
> 
> Has anyone on the CW Reflector tried it?
> 
> See attached.
> 
> 73
> 
> DR
> N1EA


-- 
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles
WB6KBL
SKCC 19998