Ya know, I don't by the "movement counting" that I sometimes see posted regarding single lever vs. iambic keying. Do we count muscle movement or joint movement? Is it one motion to squeeze or two? Do we count close and open motions or only closing motions? There is a lot of gray and subjectivity. I've even seen the counting applied unevenly (e.g. releasing is counted as a motion for iambic but not for single lever).
I think the only sane way to look at is by looking at switch closures. How many motions and how many muscles are involved in closing the switches is a far more complex and subjective subject. Switch closures are very concrete and countable. Looking at it from a switch closure perspective, we have the letter A requiring 2 for iambic and 2 for single lever. I say that is one squeeze or grasp motion on iambic, others say it is 2 or 3 separate finger motions. Doesn't matter, we can both agree that it is 2 distinct switch closers. K requires 2 on Iambic but 3 on single lever. C requires 2 on Iambic and 4 on single lever. Regardless of the amount of joint / muscle movement, the iambic keyer requires less switch closures. The thing that makes Iambic tougher is that those switch closures must be precisely timed. That timing is easy at slow speeds and doable at moderate to fast speeds. At competition speeds, suspect the competitors use to single lever paddles because of the nearly impossible timing requirements of iambic, not because of any savings in motion. Having said all that, I do CW for fun, not efficiency. I know that Iambic requires less switch closures but I hardly every use the paddles. I use a bug or straight key most of the time simply because they're more fun. After all, this is a hobby - Keith N1AS - - K3 711 - -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of n4lq In fact when you consider the entire alphabet, less finger movement is required with the single lever paddle. This came as a shock to me. Check the letter C. On a single lever we swing left, right, left, right. That's 4 movements. With duals, we (push left and hold), (push right and hold), (release left), (release right) for letter C. So we have the same number of movements with either paddle. Now let's do A. With single lever we swing left, swing right, release. 3 moves. With duals, we push left and hold, push right, release left, release right. 4 moves! It all happens so fast that you don't realize you are doing it. Steve Ellington [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ 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
