[Elecraft] K1 default iambic keyer mode (iambic A)

[Michael Babineau]

I'm sure that this has come up on the list before ... but for the
sake of anyone else who might be experiencing this and questioning
their sanity ...

Be advised that the default iambic keyer mode in the K1 (and I'm 
guessing
maybe the other Elecraft Rigs) is Iambic mode A.

If you learned iambic keying (ie you really do use the squeeze 
capabilities
to send Rs and Cs etc) in the last 20 years then it is likely that you 
learned
Iambic Mode B. Certainly the Heathkit HD-1410 and subsequent Curtis-Chip
based keyers that I used were Mode B. Also my Ft-817 and my Ten-Tec
Argo 556 use mode B for their internal keyers.

So what is the difference you ask. Well for me it manifested it self as 
an
inability to send the letter R. This has been driving me crazy since I 
finished
my K1 a little over a month ago. I just figured I must be getting old 
... spending
too much time playing with a Bug using the other hand etc.

With mode B when sending an R you depress both DIT and DAH paddles
together making sure to close the DIT first, then you hold until your 
hear
the DAH ,then release both paddles. The keyer completes the last DIT.
With Iambic mode A the operation is the same except that you must wait
a little longer to release the paddles, ie you release when you hear the
last DIT.  For me this meant that 80% of the time I tried to send an R I
got an A and couldn't for the life of me figure out what was going on.
I can't count the number of times I cleaned the contacts on my paddles!
Not sure why it just seemed to be just R that was causing a problem for 
me
but changing to Mode B fixed it.

It is very easy to change to Mode B via the menu settings on the K1, but
Mode A is the default for the K1 so unless you change it you will be
using mode A.

Hope to be on the ARCI HomeBrew Sprint this afternoon with the K1.

I'll be the guy sending lots of perfectly formed Rs!

Michael VE3WMB