I think everyone should own a straight key - they come in handy at times and do not cost that much. They will key any rig you might ever own, can't say the same for keyers without additional circuitry. I mostly use some sort of keyer and paddle. Which to learn on? I would lean toward the straight key first. Going from that to the keyer/paddle should be relatively easy. The MFJ code reader? I have one, it is not really that good (for anything) --- there are free programs that you can run on a pc with a sound card that will decode cw as well or better than the MFJ unit. The first step to learning CW of course is that of receiving. As you listen to others on the air make some notes of what others do that makes it hard to copy (like run everything together) and try to avoid doing so yourself.
73/72 - Mike WA8BXN _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
