On 3/25/2011 3:56 PM, John Cooper wrote: > Anyone know of any google or youtube videos or a website that shows > how to use a key like the bencher by-1 or 2. Also I would like to > poll those that use paddles do you have dits on the left or right > paddle? Curious as to what the majority uses.
Wow John, you are going to get as many opinions as there are people who read your post! :-) I wouldn't be too surprised if one or two also assert their answers are "right" and all the rest are "wrong." [;-)) I don't know of any videos on the I'net, and given the above, they probably would convey just one person's opinion anyway, and YMMV. Here's mine: I'm left-handed but, like most southpaws, can [and have to, sometimes] do things right handed, it's called "Tyranny of the Majority." Try a hand operated can opener left-handed. We conducted a survey here about 4 or 5 years ago, and while roughly half of the southies paddled north, less than 1% of the northpaws paddled south. Apparently we lefties are far more adaptable than our right-handed brethren [and sistren]. So, you first have to figure out if you're right or left-handed. Once you have that ... A standard right-handed bug has the dots on the thumb and dashes on the fingers. You could buy left-handed bugs, maybe still can, but they were more expensive. My Elmer was left-handed too, but he taught me to send right so I could write in my log with my left. When I graduated to an old WW2 surplus Lionel J-36, I used it right-handed. I still usually paddle right, dots on the thumb. I can and sometimes do paddle left. Generally this is when using someone else's rig who paddles south. It doesn't seem to matter much if he has dots on the thumb or fingers, I get used to it right away. I've also seen right-handers turn a left-handed paddle around, put their hand over the paddle and work it just fine. The message: "Do what works for you, there is no 'right' answer." If you're a leftie and think you might have frequent occasion to use someone else's paddle [FD, county expeditions, etc], the odds are about 80-85 out of 100 if he is male that he will be right-handed and have it set up north with dots on the thumb. The odds he will be male are about 99 out of 100. In that case, you might want to just learn to paddle right with dots on the thumb. Again though, it's like boats ... whatever floats yours will work just fine. Enjoy your K2, enjoy being in a fairly small world-wide group that converse in Morse code. 73, Fred K6DGW - Northern California Contest Club - CU in the 2011 Cal QSO Party 1-2 Oct 2011 - www.cqp.org ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
