Just my opinion guys....... Most radios have an electronic keyer built in . My K3 does & I use it. So it's straight key [ UGH] or electronic key. If you want to send the letter A. It's DIT DAH. With a keyer it's tap one side then the other. The keyer sends DIT with the proper spacing & then DAH. With a straight key anyone sending especially if they're just learning will send five As & every one will have different spacing & DAHs of a different time length. Why not just start with electronic keying. You can even use the keyboard to send. Receiving or copying code is the real job. I've been on CW 55 yr.s. I can still 'head copy' 45 WPM but so what. A person making a contact with another CW stn. at 10 WPM is having just as much pleasure as a contact at 40 WPM. I speak a little Spanish. Very little. But I speak another language. CW. From the time I was 13 yr.s old I've felt I speak a language other than English. Sense of pride in that. If you want to use machines to work CW that's how you see it. Like JT65 or RTTY. Machines doing the work. Nothing wrong with that. If you want to actually send CW why waste yr.s on an old way of sending when the modern way is easier & easier on the ears of those copying your CW. In my opinion if you really want to learn to send get an electronic key & use the keyer built into your radio. You can practice off air. If you want to later try nostaligic straight keys at least you will know what letters should sound like on CW. You can match your straight key sending to what you know the CW should sound like. My opinion.
K9IL ______________________________________________________________ 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 Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
