[Elecraft] Straight key first...

[John Ragle]

Will...

     Yours is an amazing and wonderful story! CW learning is not only 
the learning of a new skill, but also the ability to use an amazing 
weak-signal technique!

     I was 13 years old when I took my "Class B" in 1946 -- and I was 
very scared about the 13 wpm code test. I took the "Class A" a year 
later, then in about 1970 I took took the Extra Class exam */with its 
code test/*. By then, I was fairly experienced with CW, and sailed 
through both the code and the theory part. I was pretty surprised when 
the FCC dropped all code requirements (still think it was a bad idea!), 
but since the then ham community seemed to be in favor,I let my 
objections be held as private misgivings.

     Over the (65) years since my first license, I have continued to use 
CW when the going was marginal or tough. Last night I worked Illinois on 
6 meters using CW, and I am sure the QSO would never have happened on 
SSB -- signals were just too weak.

     I use the full list of digital modes now, CW, PSK, all the way 
through to Olivia and WSJT. When conditions are good to outstanding, I 
use SSB as well, but I don't usually waste spectrum and power that way. 
I don't like to run high power just to waste it on 1 or 2 kHz of 
spectrum space...the digital modes are very amenable to the use of the 
fine narrow-band filters on my K3 and I find particularly PSK31 to be a 
very relaxing rag-chewing mode, with its buffering (with FLDIGI). 
There's time for coffee, and the note-taking is already on the screen...

     Good luck and have fun with CW!

John Ragle -- W1ZI

=====

On 6/30/2011 7:37 AM, William Ravenel wrote:
> I passed 13 wpm to pass General in the early 80s and never made a single CW QSO - didn't even use a key to practice. But when I passed the no-code Extra in 2007 I decided to work CW until I could copy at least 20 wpm. Bought a paddle and decided to learn to use it with my left hand so my dominant right hand could take notes. I also decided to set the paddle up with dits on the left since this appeared to be the way the majority of paddle users did it. This way I could pass my paddle to most right handers and there would be no need to reverse the "sense" of the paddle. Similarly, I could move most other's paddle to the left side of the radio and jump right in. I've reached 20 wpm now and wish I'd discovered the joy of CW sooner.
>
> Will, AI4VE