[Elecraft] Getting Started With CW

[EricJ]

I'm sold on single-lever paddles. I have a handbuilt one from G3YUH, and 
I have a Kent single-lever that is outstanding. Very smooth to operate 
and nicely finished. It's my favorite key now. I never could get 
interested in iambic keying which is more of an affectation than 
anything useful. The single-lever paddle was a very easy transition from 
years of using dual-lever paddles.

I have two Benchers: chrome and black. The black one I used mobile every 
day for 5 years when I was active in County Hunting, and traveling every 
week to the Bay Area from So Cal. It sat on the passenger seat and I 
keyed it with my right hand (I'm left handed). I never thought to tether 
it and as a result it occasionally hit the firewall when I had to brake 
really hard. After 5 years, the only problem was the rivets on the 
plastic finger pieces loosened. The chrome one uses screws, but the 
black one has crappy rivets. It's a simple, tough design that is easy to 
set up and holds adjustment if you don't let it fly around untethered in 
a vehicle.

Starting out, the Benchers would be a good choice. They're a good choice 
even with experience, but you can find them used fairly cheap and they 
will give good service for a new CW op until they learn their own 
preferences.

Eric
KE6US


On 11/30/2014 11:18 PM, Sverre Holm (LA3ZA) wrote:
> I couldn't agree more. I'm glad I finally discovered the single-lever paddle
> after more than ten years of struggling with iambic. It is so much easier to
> use the single-lever and it is much more forgiving for small timing errors.
>
> I wrote about it on my blog some time ago:
> http://la3za.blogspot.no/2013/06/the-advantage-of-single-lever-paddle.html
> After that I got the tiny Palm single-lever paddle.
>
>
> Barry K3NDM wrote
>> Tom,
>>       As a beginner, don't get hung up on iambic.
>
>
>
>
> -----
> Sverre, LA3ZA
>
> K2 #2198, K3 #3391,
> LA3ZA Blog: http://la3za.blogspot.com,
> LA3ZA Unofficial Guide to K2 modifications: http://la3za.blogspot.com/p/la3za-unofficial-guide-to-elecraft-k2.html
> --
> View this message in context: http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/K3-CW-decoder-and-CQ-CW-contest-tp7595261p7595290.html
> Sent from the Elecraft mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
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