[Elecraft] [K3] CW feature: Swing?

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

Well, Arni, this is a case where mileages *do* vary. I, for one, find a
reasonable amount of "swing" improves copy and reduces fatigue. But, then,
I've been listening to it from both commercial and amateur operators for
over half a century now...

An awful to of good traffic was handled long before "keyers" came on the
scene. 

I recognize that a lot of today's Hams, experienced only with
machine-perfect code with a pure sine wave sidetone, have trouble copying
anything else. I was much the same back about the time I took my code test.
One doesn't progress beyond that point without the same effort it took to
learn CW in the first place: practice. With keyers and keyboards so common
today, that's not as easy to find as we did. That's why I strive to hold the
best spacing I can on my bug when working someone using a keyer, but I have
no illusions that I'll ever match the machine perfect timing of a keyer. 

The "music" argument makes sense to me but I'm no musician, just a
commercial and amateur CW operator with a *lot* of CW traffic behind me sent
by ops on bugs that were a joy to copy, and some who weren't. (Some things
never change ;-)

Ron AC7AC



-----Original Message-----



On Mon, 30 Jun 2008 15:02:38 +0200, "Arie Kleingeld PA3A" <pa3a at hccnet.nl>
wrote:

>CW-swing is related to music.

No it isn't.  It's related a person with a poor fist that cannot control the
length of the dashes to match the dots they are sending.  It has nothing to
do with music; It has to do with reliable communication.  I believe most bug
users who tout the Mississippi Swing should QLF.

> Timing is so important.

That is correct.  A Dash has three times the length of three dots, no more,
no less.  Even Beethoven knew that, as shown in his fifth symphony.


>
>Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra are still famous for their timing. A 
>1-2-3-4 march has a steady beat. But have you ever heard the Saint 
>Louis Blues March? Lots of examples...

None of your examples were CW operators and probably didn't even know what
it was...

[snip]

Tom, N5GE - SWOT 3537 - Grid EM12jq