[Elecraft] Getting Started With CW

[Walter Underwood]

I’m not a CW operator, but if you have any RSI issues from computer use, be careful about spending a lot of time with a straight key. Professional telegraphers got an early version of RSI called “glass arm”. It appears that you can avoid that with excellent technique, the same way you avoid RSI on a computer. But I have not heard of RSI injuries with paddles.

wunder
K6WRU
CM87wj
http://observer.wunderwood.org/

On Nov 30, 2014, at 8:42 PM, Jim Brown <jim at audiosystemsgroup.com> wrote:

> On Sun,11/30/2014 8:25 PM, Leroy Marion wrote:
>>  Does not a paddle and keyer give you perfect timing?
> 
> 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. But bugs are inherently different from the paddle/keyer combo. Perhaps one of the CWOps guys who are working with CW Academy can offer an opinion. Mine is that sending good CW is mostly a matter of training our brain and fingers to mimic the good CW that we hear. 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.
> 
> BTW -- if you want to get a great start on CW (or build your skills), by all means take advantage of CW Academy. This is the brainchild of K6RB and a few other CWOps members, and it's been quite successful. http://www.cwops.org/  I'm a proud member of CWOps, but not very active. It's a great group. Membership is by invitation. You don't need to be a member to be in CW Academy or the many on-the-air events. Check out the website.
> 
> 73, Jim K9YC
> 
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