[Elecraft] Yahoo-o-o-o-o !!

Mon Apr 2 16:18:02 EDT 2007

With practice you'll send excellent CW even with a simple home-made key
fashioned from a hacksaw blade.  

After more than 50 years pounding brass both as a Ham and in
military/commercial service, I seldom found any significant difference in
*most* straight keys. The major difference that I have noted is that some
are designed to be operated with the arm held entirely in the air while
others are designed for one's arm to rest on the desk. The arm-in-the-air
style seem popular in some countries other than the USA and we're starting
to see more of those imported here. Typically they have a much, much
stronger spring to resist the weight of the operator's arm. 

I'm a arm-on-the-desk sender but do not move my wrist when sending. It's all
done by rocking my whole forearm up and down. That prevents a "glass arm" or
muscle cramps that come from long sessions. 

If you think sending with a bug (a mechanical semi-automatic key) is
"cheating" I'll respectfully suggest that you've probably never really tried
to use a bug. They are much, much more challenging than a straight key.
While they allow faster sending, their real value is in *easier* sending
once you master their operation. It's a simple rolling action of the hand
back and forth that you can do for hours with no fatigue. Again the hand and
fingers do not move in normal bug sending. That prevents the aforementioned
"glass arm" syndrome again. 

In most commercial circuits, operators using bugs almost never exceeded 15
wpm or so and sometimes their employers supplied bugs had their weights
welded in place to prevent faster sending. Working at a slower WPM rate
moved traffic faster by avoiding the need for lots of "fills" and correcting
mistakes. 

Some private circuits, especially government and military operations where
the same operators were on both ends of the circuit day after day, saw some
operators develop really fantastic speeds, but they were the exception
rather than the norm. 

Commercial operators at shore stations in the maritime service had to copy
and send legibly to all sorts of CW operators at sea, some who barely knew
CW and sent even less well. It was the shore station operator's job to keep
those ships calling back to send and receive traffic. That's how they made
money. Those operators had to be good enough that no matter how bad the guy
on the ship sent or how poorly he received, he felt like he was a perfect CW
operator after working the shore station. So, often, shore based CW ops had
to slow w-a-y down for them when sending and then be able to read
near-gibberish when receiving. That ability, not raw speed, is the real
skill in commercial CW operating, and I submit the same is true on the Ham
bands. 

I recommend practicing your sending using a CW reader software such as CW
GET. It's pretty fussy. It wants to see perfect spacing to print out
correctly, so it's a good, tough monitor. But don't get discouraged. CW is
like speech. No two 'voices' are exactly the same, nor do they need to be.
Before the days of keyers and keyboards we could scan the bands and pick out
operators we knew by their fists without waiting for a call sign. But that
doesn't mean they were hard to copy. Again, it's like language. The more
fluent you are in it, the more quickly you can understand in spite of some
"accents" that make individuals sound different. Like speech, the challenge
is to keep one's accent under control and learn to read CW well enough to
understand it easily in spite of an accent at the other end. 

After all, any computer can copy perfect machine code. What us Humans can do
that computers can't (yet) is copy code that is less than machine-perfect.
It takes a little practice, though, especially if you learned CW on machine
generated code or if you learned using a system that allowed abnormal
spacing to allow you extra time to think about the letters (e.g.
Farnsworth). Those are good learning tools, but they're only the first step.
Once a new operator masters that, he/she can start learning to copy CW in
the "real world" of fists and bugs and perhaps even a few drunken brass
pounders on the bands <G>. 

Ron AC7AC

-----Original Message-----
From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Brett gazdzinski
Sent: Monday, April 02, 2007 11:55 AM
To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Subject: RE: [Elecraft] Yahoo-o-o-o-o !!

I never used a paddle or keyer, but have had hundreds of long QSO's 
in the past, like 20 years ago.

Like everyone else, I think my sending sounds super....

I know what good CW sounds like, and there is a lot of very poor stuff on
the air, last night I heard someone who always sent an extra dot on the
letters S and H...

I have most problems coping when people do not separate the letters but
drool them all together.

I like a straight key, never used any sort of bug or keyer, and kind of
think that's cheating, I am not after DX nor will I be 
entering any contests, and don't want to dazzle anyone with 
my 95 wpm CW, I think you can do it with computers now, cant you? My old VIC
20 with the AIR1 card did that I think. (remember THEM?)

I will try cleaning my old key up, its been sitting for about 20 years, and
don't think it was ever very quality...

Brett
N2DTS

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tom Hammond [mailto:n0ss at earthlink.net]
> Sent: Monday, April 02, 2007 1:25 PM
> To: Brett gazdzinski
> Subject: RE: [Elecraft] Yahoo-o-o-o-o !!
> 
> Hi Brett:
> 
> >Can anyone recommend a good basic key?
> >I have an old radio shack brass but the contacts
> >are shot I think, it acts a bit funky sometimes.
> 
> Are you looking for a STRAIGHT KEY, or a PADDLE?
> 
> If you plan to actually WORK CW and to improve your CW proficiency,
> I'd not recommend that you invest too heavily in a straight key, but 
> something in the <$20 range might work well... UNLESS you fully 
> intend to NOT graduate up to using a keyer once you hit your limit of 
> sending speed with straight hand-sent CW. Most folks can send decent 
> straight-key-sent CW up to about 20-23 WPM, but then the arm/wrist 
> goes and quality begins to suffer... as does the body... and the ears 
> of the op on the other end.
> 
> If you intend up eventually switch to a keyer, then decide how much
> you're willing to invest in a straight key... how long you plan to 
> use it... and whether the investment is well-amortized over the 
> length of time you'll use it.
> 
> Paddles are available for $20 on up. I'm not certain they get
> terribly much BETTER with a significant increase in price... probably 
> a bit better, however. It'll be up to you to decide what 
> it'll be worth to you.
> 
> Morse Express ( http://www.morsex.com/  )offers a fairly wide range
> of STRAIGHT KEYS/BUG/PADDLES in an even wider range of prices.
> 
> Of course, there are always all sorts of keys/paddles available on
> the EHAM.COM FOR SALE site and in EBAY.
> 
> Regarding your R/S brass straight key:
> 
>   1) Be sure that the bearings are properly seated and 'snugged'
>      down to the point that they make good electrical contact but
>      NOT so tight that the armature doesn't work smoothly!
> 
>   2) Use a DOLLAR BILL between the contacts to clean them!!!
> 
>      NEVER use anything which is abrasive!!! PERIOD!!! If the
>      contacts happen to be silver/ or gold plated, you'll succeed
>      in removing all traces of the plating with the 1st or 2nd
>      swipe!
> 
>      A U.S. DOLLAR BILL has high rag content and does a wonderful
>      job of removing oxidation without removing plating (if any
>      exists).
> 
>   3) TIGHTEN all electrical connection hardware (exc. the bearings).
> 
>   4) Set the spring tension such that there is enough resistance to
>      your presses that you can feel the resistance. You should NOT
>      have to 'work' to close the contacts, but they should offer
>      some resistance
> 
>   5) Set the contact spacing such that you get a bit of both tactile
>      AND audible feedback when you're sending. The thickness of a
>      business card is a good starting point for setting beginning
>      contact spacing.
> 
>   6) PRACTICE A LOT
> 
> 73,
> 
> Tom Hammond    N0SS
> 

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