[Elecraft] Fastest: Paddle or Bug

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

I'd be darn proud of that certificate too!!=20

Now you all have smoked out a REAL radio operator hanging around here!
Glad to hear from you Frank!=20

BTW, when I took my commercial radiotelegraph test in the 50's, we got
five letter code groups too at 20 wpm INCLUDING that %$#@& punctuation
we never used on the Ham bands!  My pencil copy barely stretched to 20
wpm for a minute. I think I had writer's cramp for a week.  I LOVE a
mill. =20

Every once in a while the radio club that is managing KPH fires it up on
500 KHz and sends some "press". That sure is fun to copy again!=20

Ron AC7AC
K2 # 1289

-----Original Message-----
Not totally on topic but here goes.

I was a Radioman First Class for 2 years plus on a destroyer in the
Pacific=20
during WWII. I really enjoyed copying "Fox" broadcasts. Fox means "Do
Not=20
Respond." We could not break radio silence. They were almost invariably
5=20
letter code groups at 18 WPM or occasionally 20 if the circuits were
busy. It=20
was PERFECT code from NPD in Frisca or NPD from Honolulu. It soon became

second nature to copy the stuff.=20

We put out a little daily newspaper from IFS, KU, or kWh. It was at 45
WPM=20
and we copied it on a mimeograph stencil. That soon became easy to copy.
Some=20
included punctuation, paragraphs, etc.

I have a certificate from the Dayton Hamvention for copying 40 WPM with
a=20
pencil. Perfect copy (crossing t's and dotting i's) for 5 minutes. I'm
very=20
proud of that certificate.=A0=20

However, I'm now 77 years old and it doesn't come nearly as easy as it
did.=20
So be it!

73,

Frank, W8OK