[Elecraft] K3 Keying - minority opinion?

[David Ferrington, M0XDF]

I have to say I'm hoping that by the time it matters to me, Elecraft  
will have implemented Ultimatic, otherwise I can see myself buying a  
WKUSB or K12-EXT and fitting it into the K3 somewhere.

I realise that your're busy Wayne and this is probably quite a way  
down on your list, but please consider implementing Ultimatic, perhaps  
in place of Iambic if you have space issues and can give people the  
choice at f/w upgrade time?
73 de M0XDF, K3 #174
-- 
Mathematics is the language with which God has written the universe.
-Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer (1564-1642)

On 6 Sep 2008, at 14:33, Don Wilhelm wrote:

> 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.