[Elecraft] Getting Started With CW

[Al Gulseth]

A little late to the party here, but I'll throw in my 2 cents worth. I'm sort 
of "old school" in favoring becoming proficient with a straight key first 
before moving to a bug or a keyer. It makes sense: to use a sports analogy, 
one needs to master the fundamentals before trying to move to fancier stuff.
(This was drilled into me by my now SK dad, who was a USCG radio op in WWII. 
If you can send smoothly enough with a straight key to make the op on the 
other end think you're using a keyer, you've accomplished something.)

That being said, as far as straight keys are concerned, in my book the 
most "bang for the buck" is the Nye 320 series rectangular base with a Navy 
knob (the stacked as opposed to single disk arrangement.) The 310 oval base 
model and the J-38s etc. are nice keys but just not quite as smooth IMHO as 
the 320. There are better ones but they are a lot more expensive.

Next, I'm going to differ here with what I've seen from several recommending 
the Benchers. I owned one and was never impressed - to me "best bang for the 
buck" in the paddle category are the Kents (SP-1 single lever, TP-1 twin.) 
Another possible group of price to performance "sleepers" are the keys and 
paddles from American Morse Equipment. The Begalis et al may be superior, but 
I've never had my hands on one to compare. (Note that I tend to be somewhat 
of a tightwad in going for what will get the job done properly without a 
bunch of "extras" in features or expense.)

73, Al

On Sun November 30 2014 11:05:34 pm Tom Blahovici wrote:
> I like the comment about going through an intermediate step... Maybe I'll
> look at a paddle instead. So what's this about iambic? What are the types
> of paddles out there?
>