[High-Speed-CW] re:[High Speed CW] QRQ

[Tommy]

HI CHUCK AND NICE TO HEAR FROM YOU!

GOSH CHUCK, IT WAS ABOUT 30 YEARS AGO WHEN I WAS USING A CODE READER. IF I
RECALL CORRECT, THAT CODE READER WAS MADE BY A COMPANY NAMED INFOTECH. I
HAVE NOT SEEN ONE OF THEIR UNITS IN MANY YEARS. HOWEVER THERE ARE SOME
COMPUTER SOFTWARE PROGRAMS THAT ARE SUPPOSED TO BE PRETTY GOOD. THE ONE THAT
COMES TO MIND IS CALLED 'CWGET' (IF I REMEMBER THIS CORRECT!). ANOTHER ONE
IS CW DECODERXP. UNFORTUNATELY I CAN'T RECOMMEND THE WEB SITE FOR
DOWNLOADING, BUT I'M PRETTY SURE YOU CAN FIND THEM BY A GOOGLE SEARCH.

TYPING IS ANOTHER SUBJECT! THERE ARE SEVERAL DIFFERENT TYPES OF KEYBOARDS.
BY 'TYPES' I MEAN KEY LAYOUT POSITIONS. THE 'STANDARD' KEYBOARD LAYOUT IS
CALLED QWERTY AND THAT WAS, INTERESTINGLY, THE VERY FIRST KEY LAYOUT
DESIGNED BACK IN THE LATE 1800'S AS THE TYPEWRITER WAS BEING DESIGNED!
DURING THE DESIGN OF THE TYPEWRITER, THERE WERE VERY LONG WIRES BETWEEN THE
KEYS AND THE PLATTEN AND THEN PROBLEM THE DESIGNERS HAD WAS THE LADIES THEY
HAD TO DO THEIR TESTING, WOULD QUITE OFTEN JAM THE KEYS. SO IN ORDER TO SLOW
THESE LADIES DOWN, THE TYPEWRITER DESIGNERS PURPOSELY PLACED THE KEYS IN THE
MOST INEFFICIENT POSITION POSSIBLE!! THE QWERTY KEYBOARD IS THE STANDARD
STILL BEING USED TODAY. 

SOMETIME IN THE '30'S A PROFESSOR DVORAK BEGAN A 10-YEAR LONG STUDY ON
EFFICIENT  KEY PLACEMENT FOR A KEYBOARD. WHAT HE PRODUCED WAS, OBVIOUSLY,
CALLED THE DVORAK KEYBOARD. OF COURSE THIS KEYBOARD HAS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT
PLACEMENT/LOCATION OF THE KEYS. WITH THE EIGHT HOME KEYS OF THE QWERTY
KEYBOARD, ONE CAN TYPE 92 WORDS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE USING ONLY THOSE
EIGHT HOME KEYS; WITH THE DVORAK KEYBOARD, ONE CAN TYPE NEARLY 4000 WORDS OF
THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE WITH ONLY THE EIGHT HOME KEYS!! IN SHORT, THE DVORAK
BOARD IS SIGNIFICANTLY MORE EFFICIENT THAN THE QWERTY KEYBOARD. THE WORLD
TYPING SPEED RECORD WAS SET BY A LADY USING A DVORAK KEYBOARD. WHY ARE WE
STILL USING QWERTY? SIMPLE; EVERYONE HATES 'CHANGE'!!

I THINK I WAS ABOUT 50 YEARS OLD (I WILL BE 70 THIS YEAR) WHEN I STARTED
LEARNING DVORAK. THE REASON I WANTED TO TRY DVORAK WAS BECAUSE I SIMPLY
COULD NOT TYPE MUCH ABOVE 40-45 WPM ON A QWERTY BOARD...IT JUST WOULD NOT
WORK FOR ME! IT TOOK ME ABOUT SIX MONTHS TO LEARN THE NEW (DIFFERENT) KEY
PLACEMENT AND TO GET MY TYPING SPEED UP AROUND 60 WPM. AND I SURE HAD A LOT
OF MY BUDDIES LAUGHING THEIR FANNIE OFF AT ME WHILE I WAS LEARNING TOO. IN
MY FIRST ONE-THE-AIR QSO WITH A DVORAK BOARD, I COULD NOT FIND THEY KEYS
'T-O-M', IN OTHER WORDS, I COULD NOT SPELL MY OWN NAME! HOWEVER I GOT THE
LAST LAUGH BECAUSE I GOT TO WHERE I COULD TYPE ABOUT 130 WPM PRETTY
COMFARTABLE.

SO WHERE DO YOU FIND A DVORAK KEYBOARD? IF YOU HAVE A PC AND YOUR RUNNING
WINDOWS, YOU ALREADY HAVE IT! IN WINDOWS XP, ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS CHANGE
YOUR TYPING LAYOUT TO UNITED STATES-DVORAK, AND WINXP CHANGES YOUR KEYBOARD
KEY PLACEMENT TO DVORAK, FOR YOU!! OF COURSE, IT WILL NOT CHANGE THE
PHYSICAL PLACEMENT OF YOUR KEY CAPS, BUT YOU CAN DO THAT LATER. TODAY, THERE
ARE VERY FEW PHYSICAL KEYBOARDS THAT YOU CAN PURCHASE THAT ALREADY HAS THE
CORRECT KEY CAP PLACEMENT FOR DVORAK, BUT AGAIN, DO A GOOGLE SEARCH FOR
DVORAK KEYBOARDS.

NOW CHUCK, I TELL YOU THIS ONLY BECAUSE IT IS WHAT I HAD TO DO. W9FCX,
K5LGJ, AND KB9XE ALL STILL USE THE QWERTY  BOARD AND THEY DO A GREAT JOB
WITH IT. KB9XE HAS THE VERY WORST TYPING POSTURE OF ANYONE I HAVE EVER SEEN,
BUT HE IS ALSO ONE OF THE SMOOTHEST TYPIST I'VE EVER HEARD!!  IF YOUR
REASONABLY COMFORTABLE WITH THE QWERTY BOARD AND IF YOUR PAST 60 OR 65 YEARS
OLD, IT MAY NOT BE WORTH YOUR WHILE TO TRY TO SWITCH TO DVORAK. IT IS VERY
DIFFICULT TO SWITCH FROM DVORAK TO A QWERTY BOARD LAYOUT. I HAVE TRIED IT
NUMEROUS TIMES AND JUST COULD NOT MASTER DOING BOTH; KINDA LIKE SWITCHING
FROM A BUG TO A PADDLE AND THEN BACK TO A BUG....NEVER COULD DO THAT EITHER!

AGAIN I HAVE TO EMPHASIZE THAT THIS IS OUR HOBBY AND OF COURSE WHAT EVER WE
DO IN OUR HOBBY SHOULD BE A FUN THING! SO THERE IS NO NEED TO GET UPSET AND
UNHAPPY WHEN YOU FIND YOU DO HAVE TO PUT IN SOME TIME AND EFFORT TO BOTH
LEARN TO COPY FASTER AND TO GET YOUR TYPING SPEED TO BE FASTER. I WHOLE
HEARTEDLY ENCOURAGE EVERYONE WHO THINKS THEY MIGHT WANT TO GET INTO QRQ,
GIVE IT YOUR BEST SHOT AND I CAN ALMOST GUARANTEE YOU WILL FIND IT TO BE A
NEW AND VERY ENJOYABLE WAY TO ENJOY YOUR HOBBY!

73,

TOM - W4BQF



-----ORIGINAL MESSAGE-----
FROM: HIGH-SPEED-CW-BOUNCES at MAILMAN.QTH.NET
[MAILTO:HIGH-SPEED-CW-BOUNCES at MAILMAN.QTH.NET] ON BEHALF OF NI0C
SENT: MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2008 6:45 PM
TO: HIGH-SPEED-CW at MAILMAN.QTH.NET
SUBJECT: [HIGH-SPEED-CW] RE:[HIGH SPEED CW] QRQ

TOM, W4BQF,

THANKS VERY MUCH FOR YOUR POSTING, YOUR GOOD WEBSITE, AND YOUR OFFER TO HELP
OTHERS IMPROVE THEIR SPEED.  JUST BY BEING ON THE AIR REGULARLY, YOU AND
W9FCX, AND OTHERS ARE HELPING MORE THAN YOU REALIZE.  I STOP MY VFO AT 3524
AND 7024 KHZ QUITE REGULARLY TO SEE WHAT I CAN COPY.  I'LL BE SURE TO BREAK
IN ONCE IN A WHILE ACCORDING TO YOUR KIND OFFER.  

I ESTIMATE MY COMFORTABLE HEAD COPY SPEED AT AROUND 50 WPM, BUT MY SENDING
SPEED ON A KEYBOARD IS PROBABLY ONLY 30 WPM. 

ON YOUR WEBSITE YOU RECOMMENDED USING A CODE READER TO HELP IN THE
TRANSITION ABOVE 60 WPM.  I'VE SORT OF LOOKED DOWN MY NOSE AT THESE IN THE
PAST, BUT YOUR EXPLANATION MAKES PERFECT SENSE.  IS THERE A PARTICULAR TYPE
THAT YOU RECOMMEND?  THE ONLY ONES I'M AWARE OF ARE OFFERED BY MFJ.

ANOTHER QUESTION I HAVE IS HOW TO IMPROVE MY TYPING SPEED-- IS IT TOO LATE
FOR ME AT AGE 63 TO TAKE A TOUCH TYPING COURSE?    

TOM, I THINK WHAT YOU ARE DOING IS SO IMPORTANT FOR AMATEUR CW OPERATORS--
KEEPING THE QRQ FLAME BURNING!

73,

CHUCK GUENTHER  NI0C
   
______________________________________________________________
HIGH-SPEED-CW MAILING LIST
HOME: HTTP://MAILMAN.QTH.NET/MAILMAN/LISTINFO/HIGH-SPEED-CW
HELP: HTTP://MAILMAN.QTH.NET/FAQ.HTM
POST: MAILTO:HIGH-SPEED-CW at MAILMAN.QTH.NET