[Elecraft] Vibroplex - seen on ABC Pan Am (OT)

[Jim Dunstan]

At 08:51 AM 11/7/2011 -0500, you wrote:
>With good CW ops you can just save all the dah's till the end and send
>them all at once; if the other guy is any good he knows how to put
>them all back in the right place. [See QST March 1964 "Love them
>Dits..."
>
>73,
>Drew
>AF2Z


A lot of truth to the above statement.  I worked professional CW 
communications on
point to point land nets and all the ops used bugs (no electronic keyers in 
those days)
and all had recognizable fists.  The fists that were the most comfortable 
emphasized
the dashes and speeded up the dots.

How they did this really created the distinctiveness of the individual's 
'fist'.  All were
recognizably different from one another but certainly not variable on a 
scale of
sloppinesss'.

Pride came from ability to communicate not from the similarity to perfectly 
formed
characters.  Normal text was sent as in normal speech.  However if sending 
special
non-normal information ... such as a serial number ... the op would slow 
down and
send well formed letters .... just as in normal voice one slows down and 
gives attention
to clear enunciation.

If all the text was sent this way (computer like characters) i can assure 
you it would
be found boring.  Something like listening to slowly enunciated speech in 
language
lessons on Voice of America.  That is okay for someone learning the 
language but
really boring for someone who knows it.  The CW equivalent would be the 
code practise
sessions on W1AW .... a CW op would have to really 'pay attention' to copy it.

So calling someone's fist sloppy would be like saying someone with a 
different accent
speaks with sloppy language.

Someone just learning the language CW or otherwise is considered a 'novice' 
and
they speak as a novice.  Likewise not really 'sloppy'.

There are 'purists' who have fixed ideas of what the language should sound like
and consider their idea of the ideal should be a developmental goal.  I 
assure you that
in reality that goal is futile.

Learn the language and develop your facility to communicate in whatever 
community
you frequent .... that is the only goal.  If you change the 
community/environment then
you no doubt will have to adjust your language facility.

If you leave the 'novice' CW community and move in to a higher speed 
community I assure
you will have to adjust ... and almost certainly perfectly formed 
speech/characters will fall
by the wayside.

As usual a lot of listening comes before venturing some input of your own!!!

CU

Jim, VE3CI





>On Sat, 29 Oct 2011 13:20:49 -0400, Ken VE3HLS wrote:
>
> >It sounds like everyone is saying sending sloppy code is desirable.  How
> >odd;  I always thought hams took pride in their sending.  Well formed,
> >well spaced characters are much easier to copy.  I find nothing quaint
> >or charming about sending dits at 30wpm and dahs at 10 wpm, which is
> >typical of what I hear.  Either slow down the dits or speed up the
> >manually sent dahs.  I know there are limits on how slow you can send
> >dits with a bug, but if you can't slow it down enough then consider
> >using another instrument for sending code or resign yourself to the fact
> >that VE3HLS will never answer your CQ (that should be pretty easy to
> >live with)! :-)
> >
> >daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah  daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah dididit     dididit
> >daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah  daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! :-)
> >
> >Ken,
> >VE3HLS
> >
> >
>
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