[Elecraft] Iambic Keying (WAS: Straight key first?)

[WILLIS COOKE]

For the commercial and military ops, it was all traffic handling and if you did 
not have a written copy, you didn't copy it.  It is pretty hard to head copy a 
very long message if it is five letter code groups or in a language that you are 
not fluent.  For that matter, it would be pretty hard to head copy and then 
write a full minute with no errors to pass the FCC code test.  Head copy is 
pretty much a ham radio thing.
 Willis 'Cookie' Cooke 
K5EWJ & Trustee N5BPS, USS Cavalla, USS Stewart 




________________________________
From: Buddy Brannan <buddy at brannan.name>
To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Sent: Wed, June 29, 2011 10:34:10 PM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Iambic Keying (WAS: Straight key first?)

Heh. I just copy in my head. Have pretty much since the beginning. The only time 
I've ever written down anything during cw q's has been 1) traffic handling and 
2) logging. When I remember to, lately, yes, I've slipped into lazy habits. With 
this in mind, I am still baffled when I hear people, especially old school 
military ops, who say they can't copy code unless they write it down or type on 
a typewriter. The human brain is a strange beast, and no mistake. 

--
Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV - Erie, PA
Phone: (814) 860-3194 or 888-75-BUDDY



On Jun 29, 2011, at 10:13 PM, Dale Putnam wrote:

> 
> I learned with a straight key and a stick. It took me about half of one QSO to 
>figure out swapping a pencil back and forth, along with throwing the t-r switch, 
>and the mute switch, adjusting the tx, then keying the key, and reversing all 
>that, pretty near made it necessary to use my off hand for the key... keeping 
>the pencil corralled was a good thing. So when paddles came along, it was pretty 
>near easy to move to a nice paddle, keyer, and still keep the pencil corralled. 
>It wasn't until just a couple years ago that I had the fun of playing with a 
>Halli T-O keyer... and a single lever Vibroplex. Remember when that was THE 
>setup? Well.. I rather had a tussle with it, so am back with the paddles now, 
>with 8 on the desk now. And one Junkers straight key. Still keeping the pencil 
>or keyboard in my left hand.It is a lot easier to write with my left hand and 
>key with the right, although I can do it the other way, for those few times that 
>someone has the paddles backwards for me. 
>
Bu
> t it doesn't sound good. Way past the Lake Erie swing... 
> 
> --...  ...--
> Dale - WC7S in Wy
> 
>> Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2011 21:59:51 -0400
>> From: w3fpr at embarqmail.com
>> To: carlclawson at frontier.com
>> CC: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
>> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Iambic Keying (WAS: Straight key first?)
>> 
>>  OK, I have made a vow to learn to send with my right hand within the 
>> next year, so my left hand is free to write.  Then I will not have to 
>> change any of the transmitters to reverse the paddles anymore.
>> 
>> Being a Southpaw can be a good thing!
>> 
>> 73,
>> Don W3FPR
>> 
> 
>                         
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