I am left handed and I can use a straight key only with my left hand. I learned to use a bug and keyer right handed because I cannot write legibly right handed (OK, I can't write legibly with either hand, but relatively speaking, left is less illegible than right!). Oddly, I always use the Bencher with my K2 right handed, however I find that I'm nearly equally comfortable with either hand on the KX1.
Years ago, a good friend and long-term ham (right handed) told me that the proportion of hams who are left handed exceeds the overall population average (~10%) by a "significant" amount. He offered a few lame reasons for this. Given that 43.3 percent of all people make up their own statistics, I've continued to wonder about this ... not all the time, just every now and then. SMALL EXPERIMENT: If you'd like to, send me an email (OFF REFLECTOR for Pete's sake!!!!) with the following information: Basic Handedness (right, left, either) Writing Handedness Straight Key Handedness (right, left, either, never used) Bug Handedness Iambic Keyer Handedness PTT Switch Handedness (for phone-only ops) Age Years Licensed Comments (but I'll probably ignore them for the survey) Cut-off date for inclusion in the results is 2359Z 5/16/2005. And, if you google "left handedness", you'll find a geocities entry on the first page of results that offers this sobering (if possibly extreme) analysis: "What does left-handedness mean, practically speaking? Medical literature reports that lefties more accident prone, are more likely to have their fingers amputated by power-tools, suffer more wrist fractures. Lefties are more susceptible to allergies, auto-immune diseases, bed-wetting, depression, drug abuse, epilepsy, hypnotism, low birth weight, schizophrenia, sleeping disorders, suicide attempts, and certain learning disabilities. Lefties are six times likelier to die in an accident, and four times to likelier to die while driving." Bed wetting? How have any of us actually survived to retirement? 73, Fred K6DGW Auburn CA CM98lw EricJ wrote: > > I did the same thing, only I'm left handed, but the same idea. Because of > the finer dexterity needed for a straight key, I am forced to use my left > hand for that. I can send better with my right foot than my right hand. But > with a paddle I'm nearly ambidexterous. I switched to my right hand with a > paddle so that I could have my left hand free for writing notes, logging, > etc. But I found I can now use a paddle with either my left or right hand > with equal ease. All I have to do is reverse the paddle functions in the > keyer (dits always on the thumb). > > Eric > KE6US _______________________________________________ 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
