[High-Speed-CW] Re: Nominal max speed with straight key?

[Steve Harrisonusa]

> What would you say is the nominal max speed with straight key?

Up to 30 or 35 wpm. After all, most of us who obtained our Extra ticket in
the olden days of 20 wpm, took the code test with a straight key. The high
speed CW ops during WWII normally ran 35-45 wpm all day long on a straight
key. Some were reputed to be nearly as fast as the better bug swingers but
they would soon develop glass arms, better known today as carpal tunnel
syndrome.

>with coutie key?  My practice with a coutie key indicates max speed
>might be in the 25-28 wpm.

Never used one and only knew one guy who did, and was any good at it at
speed (35+ wpm). Can't rember his name or call now but he was a blind
young guy in Sacto back in the early '70s. That kid was absolutely
amazing; I'd put him easily in the top 0.5% of all high speed CW ops. His
straight key and cutie fists were super-distinctive and very easy to copy
while his keyer fist would put some of the faster-typing secretaries to
shame.

>I don't have a straight key; so I'm guessing, but I would guess
>15-18 with a straight key.

Too slow.

>I also arriving at the conclusion that to max speed with an iambic
>keyer and dual paddle is only a few wpm more than with a coutie -
>perhaps 30-35 wpm.

That may be about average for most Extras who do a lotta CW but the upper
50% of us are probly more around 40-50 wpm.

>From those of you who have actual experience on the air with these,
>what has been your max speed, with the system(s) with which you have
>experience, before everything begins to fall apart?

For myself, I've never been able to hold my sending together with a keyer
for longer than a minute or two over 55 or so. On the very rare occasion,
I may have peaked 65 for several sentences but I think my more-normal,
long-term consistent efforts are likely closer to 45-50. I used to
consider myself in the top 5% of high-speed CW ops but haven't competed
against any others since the 1983 ARRL National Convention at Cedar
Rapids, so dunno for sure any longer. And I don't really care in any case;
CW's my mother tongue, and voice is just another way to communicate when
the other person doesn't know CW (or is too slow) ;o\  ;o\  ;o\  If I
can't use CW on my radio, I don't need the damb radio; it's useless to me
since it wouldn't be any fun any longer.

Awhile back, when Shel, W8WN and I were just beginning our high speed
meteor scatter skeds before MSDSP came along, we were just using our
keyers and copying in our heads. Shel was able to run his modified
Heathkit memory keyer as fast as it would go, around 95 wpm, and I could
still copy his info (although being meteor scatter, the variety of that
info was extremely limited and so you pretty much knew what the other guy
was gonna send). I know of a few other CW ops would could do the same on
meteor scatter.

>If I'm correct, then the high-speed c.w. above about 35ish must be
>being sent with a keyboard or similar device. Any first-hand info
>on this?

35 isn't high-speed by any stretch of the imagination; it's more like
"beginning to get warmed-up". They didn't have CW keyboards during WWII as
far as I know but I've read many stories of guys running traffic up to 55
wpm. Often, they'd be faster and more accurate than the slower RTTY links,
particularly over marginal circuits (weak signal, lots of QRN, etc.).

I can type to 75 wpm on a word processor, thanks to all the years of
computers; but when I've tried doing that on the air, I found I couldn't
THINK fast enough to keep up that speed  ;o\  ;o\  ;o\  In other words, I
rapidly ran through all my coherent thoughts then started fumbling around
trying to think of what else to say. If I'm reading from prepared text and
typing it, it's just like typing a paper, of course, and the limitation is
my typing speed and accuracy.

Steve, K0XP