The weight of your forearm actuates the key. You are not bearing down with arm muscles with this technique. I keep my spacing fairly close with light tension and free bearings. It's not as smooth now at 63 as it was when my joints were very limber at 15. But it still takes very little effort.
I'm no expert on this, but I believe this technique is called the American style. The knob tends to be higher on keys for this style. I believe there is another style called the British style or maybe the European style which I'm pretty sure is closer to what you describe doing and the key knob is much lower to allow you to rest your forearm. Maybe Ron AC7AC remembers something about this. Eric KE6US www.ke6us.com -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jessie Oberreuter Sent: Friday, December 23, 2005 3:41 PM To: Bill Coleman Cc: Elecraft Subject: [Elecraft] proper use of straight keys On Fri, 23 Dec 2005, Bill Coleman wrote: > About 30 years ago, 73 magazine had an excellent article about "glass > arm" -- how telegraph operators would get it and it would put them out > of a job. It also spoke of how to avoid it -- to use a rather wide > spacing, loose trunnions, pivot on your elbow and have your whole arm > move when you key. If you key just with the muscles of your wrist, you'll tire out in no time. I've never understood either of these approaches. I set the spacing just wide enough to get good acoustic and kinesthetic feedback on contact, and set the weight just enough to provide clean keying at about 18wpm. Then I rest my middle and index fingers on the key and do everything through the finger muscles (which may be seen operating under the skin). My arm and wrist are static and rest flat on the table, and the only confession I have to make is that I have a bad habit of putting tension in the shoulder. I'm a software engineer by trade and liken this to the way I type -- wrists in contact with desk or laptop. No trouble after nearly 20 years of typing for 8 hours a day, but I'm also a light touch, and VERY picky when it comes to keyboards. The above, however, may also solve a mystery for me. I've cut down or replaced the springs on every single key I've ever owned (a dozen plus) b/c I found the stock tention too high. I've never understood why the stock tension on all of these keys was so high and figured that either every serious operator was doing something similar, or that I was in the minority on strength, dexterity, or preference. It may, however, simply be a matter of technique, and just as I can't understand why anyone would wantonly type with their wrists in the air, I can't understand why anyone would want to use their wrist or arm muscles to operate a key. I can, however, appreciate the fact that if you are keying with your whole arm, you're going to need the kind of tension most keys ship with. _______________________________________________ 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 _______________________________________________ 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
