[Elecraft] K3 Keying - minority opinion?

[Don Wilhelm]

Doug,

All is well that Iambic B meets your needs, but it is not for everyone, 
even though we may be the minority.  I need either a single lever paddle 
with an Iambic only keyer or Ultimatic mode and a dual lever paddle to 
send decent CW.
The problem with dual paddles is that I squeeze too often and end up 
generating garbage.  And that nasty Iambic B mode sends out the 
'extraneous' extra element at the end!
Ultimatic mode makes sense to my mind - I close the dash paddle and out 
comes dashes, close the dot paddle and out comes dots.  The last paddle 
activated gets priority.  It allows the insertion of one or more dots 
(dashes) in a string of dashes (dots) as well.  It makes sense to my 
mind - the paddle that I close last is what is produced.

I know there are not many users of this mode today, mainly because the 
popularity and convenience of the Curtis keyer chip and a few others 
encouraged the world to Iambic long ago.  Ultimatic was the original 
keyer mode and was the main thing available back in the '50s and '60s.  
It is just more natural to me than those alternating dots and dashes.

Those who must do 'slap' keying or must use a single lever paddle with 
an Iambic keyer might want to try Ultimatic mode - it is available in 
some of the K1EL keyers (the K12 is one) as well as several others (but 
no internal keyers that I am aware of).


Ultimatic users 'stand up' and request that it be added to the K3 
internal keyer!  Wayne did give a strong 'maybe' when I asked.

73,
Don W3FPR

DOUGLAS ZWIEBEL wrote:
> Hi all....
>
> Before the K3, I used my computer (contesting) to generate the "stock"
> cw.  I used a Kansas City Keyer for the hand keying, connected to the
> rig using a Y connector for the CW in.  Worked well.
>
> With the K3, I still us a computer (contesting) to generate the
> "stock" cw (CQ, 59905, TU, etc).  My paddle now goes directly into the
> K3 (separate jack from the computer).
>
> When I first tried this, it was terrible.  I hated the keying and
> couldn't get it to feel right.  Then (duh) I read the manual and
> switched to iambic B and all was good with the world.  This is my
> setup now.  I was/am more than happy to regain some space on my
> desktop (physical, not computer).  For my needs, I see zero reason to
> have external keyer above and beyond the computer needed for
> contesting.  For casual Qs, I find the K3 to be VFB.
>
> de Doug KR2Q
>   
>