[Elecraft] Iambic Keying - Debunking the Myth

[Darwin, Keith]

That article is flawed.  It has errors and makes claims that cannot be
backed up.  The bottom line is that Iambic keying is more efficient,
period.  Where it falls down is in two areas:

1.  Learning - Apparently, bug users have a hard time learning to
squeeze rather than rock.

2.  Timing - The timing needed to insert elements can be very tight.
This is only an issue at high speed though.  At normal speeds, the
timing is very workable and the user can benefit from the greater
efficiency.

Rather than take other's words for it, I did my own analysis.  Given the
following sample QSO I got some real numbers:

TNX FER CALL OM UR RST 579 579 NAME BILL BILL QTH BOSTON BOSTON PSE QSL
VIA BURO 73 ES HPE CUL W1ABC DE W1AW SK

Straight Key - 268
Bug - 201
Single Paddle - 164
Iambic - 142

In this case, the bug is 25% less closures than the straight key, the
single paddle is 18.4% better than the bug and the iambic key is 13.4%
better than the single paddle.

The efficiency of the iambic method is no myth.  Whether it is worth
learning depends entirely on how able or motivated you are to learn
something new.

73 all!

- Keith N1AS -
- K2 5411.ssb.100 -


-----Original Message-----
From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Bill Tippett
Sent: Monday, September 10, 2007 8:28 AM
To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [Elecraft] Iambic Keying - Debunking the Myth

Iambic Keying - Debunking the Myth

http://www.morsex.com/pubs/iambicmyth.pdf

... The idea that iambic keying is more efficient has been around for a
long time, and few operators ever question it ...