KD1E:
>I've done a couple of read's through that article. While it has many
good points, it also has some glaring errors which make it somewhat
uncredible to me.
Some good points Keith. If someone wanted to
analyze this to death they would weight the analysis by
frequency of occurrence of letters in ordinary conversation.
Of course this is not an issue in the HST tests since they
send random 5 letter code groups.
>The other mentioned disadvantage of Iambic is that it has a speed
ceiling where sending faster than 40 wpm or so is too difficult. I have
a ceiling on receiving that kicks in long before 40 wpm so that is
absolutely not an issue.
Competition is the ultimate measure of efficiency IMHO.
Believe me, most competitors would learn to send standing on
their heads if they felt it would improve their results. The
simple fact is that the non-iambic single-paddle method has
been proven better in QRQ competition.
>Just because the speed champs use non-iambic does not make
that method "better" any more than a race car is "better"
than a mini-van.
I agree completely. Just because some claim iambic
is "more efficient", does not make it better. Non-iambic has
been proven better for QRQ speeds or for people whose hand
coordination (for squeeze timing) may not be good due to age
or other disabilities such as palsy, MS, etc.
My good friend N4SU (now SK) had to give up his hobby
of some 70 years because his trembling hands could not send
due to Parkinson's disease. I didn't realize it at the time
or I would have suggested he stop trying to send iambic with
dual-paddles and switch to a single-paddle key, which is much
more forgiving of timing errors.
My point is don't always take conventional wisdom as
as gospel. Sometimes we simply need to find what works best
for us individually (as you said).
73, Bill W4ZV
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