FW: [Elecraft] CW

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

Dan, WG4S wrote:

It got WAYYYYYY worse. This guy was on a bug, set for 35 WPM I'd guess. But
being polite, he was sending 13 WPM to match the first op. 13 WPM Dashes and
35 WPM dots, spaced for about 16 WPM.

My head is hurting just writing this down. I think I could have gotten copy
on the Hand Key, but the bug never made any sense. It was just a different
Morse code than what I know.

----------------

Unfortunately, that's pretty common among bug users. Vibroplex is arguably
the most common Bug in use today, and they made a LOT of bugs that won't
slow down under 25 wpm. For some reason they built 'em with different
springs! A bunch of us with Vibroplexes have compared notes on that subject
and micrometers disclosed a wide variety of spring thicknesses. The original
owner of my bug, a commercial operator at coastal station KPH, put a cable
clamp on the thing to get it down under 20 wpm, which he had to do to use it
on the commercial circuits handling traffic with ships at sea. Many of the
shipboard operators (the guys with the "swing" Vic mentioned) couldn't copy
any better than they could send. 

I find it very irritating when the dits and dah's are not in proper
relationship, but I learned CW as a form of "music" with the proper spacing.
Hearing it all messed up with "machine gun dits" and varying cadence is like
someone singing off key. I can usually figure out the tune, but it isn't
pleasant to hear. 

My favorite key is a Speed-X bug that has a great weight arrangement lets me
immediately dial in the proper dit speed for anything from 17 wpm on up. For
slower speeds there's my J-38 hand pump. 

Someone mentioned practicing using one of the code reader programs. That's a
great idea, as is recording yourself and then listening to it a few days
later to see if that's a fist you'd enjoy copying <G>. 

Bottom line, if you aren't using a keyboard, practice is important. Maybe
less so using a keyer, but still worth while. After 50+ years of pounding
brass I still practice sending regularly. Usually I send a page out of the
phone book, addresses, numbers and all. 

Ron AC7AC