[Elecraft] Ultimatic keying

[Fred Jensen]

On 8/12/2012 3:44 PM, Bill K9YEQ wrote:

> In 1971 in Germany in the Army Signal Corps, we convinced our COL to upgrade
> us to a 90 WPM RTTY machine so we wouldn't get stalled by the sluggish
> nature of the 60WPM.  To this day, I wonder how I typed that fast as I sure
> suck today!  Noisy is was!!!

Copying CW direct to TTY tape was hugely easy for that reason.  As long 
as he wasn't sending at 60 WPM [like I have ever been able to make 
record copy at that speed :-)], you just pressed the keys, with a lot of 
travel, and it went from ears to fingers with no intermediate stops.

It was much the same on the Underwood open-frame mills -- long key 
travel, you really knew you were pressing the key, and it became 
something of a finger dance.  Today's computer keyboards are much harder 
for me for record copy, I don't really get the physical sense of 
pressing the keys, and I tend to wear them out ... pounding far more 
than I need to.  My laptop is the worst.

Regarding Ultimatic, I've tried it, never practiced, basically didn't 
like it all that much.  My K3 and Winkey USB are both iambic, too old, 
don't use it.  But, to each his own.  The K3 keyer is all firmware, 
ultimatic could probably be added as an option if enough address space 
is available.  Time is probably the big issue for Wayne/Eric and 
Company, no one could wait quietly for the K3, then KPA500, KX3, and now 
KAT500, I'll bet their engineering agendas are very full.

73,

Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the 2012 Cal QSO Party 6-7 Oct 2012
- www.cqp.org