[Elecraft] CW: Best low cost iambic key?

[David Woolley]

Rob Lundahl wrote:
> Any recommendations for a low cost Iambic cw key?

Do you really mean an iambic keyer, or do you mean a high speed 
electronic keyer.  In my view, using iambic keyers is now becoming a 
skill that one only learns for the challenge of learning it.  If you 
want a skill that could be useful in an emergency, using a straight key 
is better, as it is much easier to improvise a directly keyed 
transmitter.  If you want fast and cheap sending, using a PC keyboard or 
PDA folding keyboard and a microcontroller provides a much cheaper 
solution, as it is basically using commodity parts, whereas iambic 
keyers are low volume products for a premium market.

When they were first developed, the only cost effective implementation 
method was discrete or SSI electronics, but now microcontrollers capable 
of working directly from a keyboard are only a few dollards and 
keyboards are also very cheap.


-- 
David Woolley
Emails are not formal business letters, whatever businesses may want.
RFC1855 says there should be an address here, but, in a world of spam,
that is no longer good advice, as archive address hiding may not work.