[Elecraft] Getting Started With CW

[Fred Jensen]

On 11/30/2014 8:42 PM, Jim Brown wrote:
> On Sun,11/30/2014 8:25 PM, Leroy Marion wrote:
>>   Does not a paddle and keyer give you perfect timing?

Not quite.  Refer to Page 40 of the October 1949 issue of QST for the 
definitive work on spacing in International Morse code.
>
> It's been nearly 60 years since I went through that. Paddles and keyers
> did not exist -- we had "bugs," but did start on straight keys.

I've been licensed for a little over 61 years [1953].  I learned on a 
straight key because that's what there was, I was 13, and couldn't 
afford a bug.  I sat for my code tests [5 WPM, 13 WPM, and 20 WPM] at 
the FCC office in downtown Los Angeles with the FCC's J-38 screwed to 
the desk, again because that's what there was.

I finally managed $5 for a war surplus J-36 bug built by Lionel of model 
train fame.  It looked like it had gone ashore with the Marines at Iwo 
Jima, but it worked and the J-38 straight key was screwed to a piece of 
plywood and migrated to the floor as a PTT foot switch.

In 1956, I and two teenage friends built "keyers."  9 or 10 dual 
triodes, mine weighed about half a brick, and we used our bugs as 
paddles.  Self-completing dots and dashes, nothing else.  Iambic hadn't 
been invented yet.

Every Elecraft radio I know about has a modern, 21st century keyer built 
in.  Actually, most every modern radio has had a keyer built in for a 
dozen years or more.  Why would you not use it?

> Unless you're a real straight
> key "pro," they're far too slow for most on air CW, so if you're going
> to learn what you're going to use, I don't see the value in going
> through an intermediate step.

Precisely!  "You *must* start on a straight key" is a litany from old 
guys who want to make Morse hard for new folks, possibly because it was 
hard for them.  The first time I ever fired a gun was in combat training 
from the same XM-177 automatic rifle I would carry thereafter.  They did 
not start us out with muzzle loading muskets and black powder. :-)

I haven't mastered Iambic, primarily because I've never tried to. 
Incidentally, I think Iambic-B originally arose as a mistake in an early 
keyer, I don't remember which one.  There are other kinds of keyers, 
Ultimatic is one, each has its following, pick one or more and begin 
enjoying another of the many facets of ham radio!  Just because I 
learned on a J-38 61+ years ago does not mean everyone has to do 
likewise today.

73,

Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the 50th Running of the Cal QSO Party 3-4 Oct 2015
- www.cqp.org