[Elecraft] More Clarifications on the Tonight Show - from K6CTW

[Ken Miller, K6CTW]

*A few more points for clarification: When my XYL, Connie, originally 
answered the call, at my home, from the producers of the show, she 
explained that I operated both codes and that I considered myself to be 
a good but not exceptional operator. However, she is the one who "sold" 
the producers that the skit could work. She also did a VERY credible job 
of explaining Morse telegraphy and the radio code and its uses. (You all 
might think to send her a thanks too as without her, this would never 
have happened cjcarroll2 at earthlink.net ) When they contacted me later 
that afternoon, I explained that my wife was correct, I am a competent 
CW and Morse operator. Your point is interesting in that they did try 
and get the fastest text messengers they could fly in. I did however 
explain that if the Tonight Show folks had been able to get the 
equivalent world record holder in CW to do this, it would have been at 
almost TRIPLE the speed we were going at. The reason, as I have 
explained before, that we worked at about 28 or so wpm is that this is 
the fastest speed that I can make nice readable copy with a pencil as 
they did not have the ability to let me use a typewriter for copy (and I 
thought they were going to do a camera shot of my copy for 
verification). Also, since we did not have the time to set up 
headphones, I just added some extra volume for me, had the stage folks 
cut my mike (to prevent feedback and overload) and copied off of the 
speaker. To re-emphasize the point, I'm just an average CW op who 
occasionally operates the CW SS QRP, whith my K2 of course, and really 
enjoys CW, and traffic handling. By the way, the radios used were Chip's 
not from Yaesu and the backup radios were from HRO. 73, Ken, K6CTW *