In the spirit of W4AN's NA Tip-O'-The Day, I'll offer a few of mine that
people might not have thought of or be aware of:
While W4AN remapped the '+' key to make it easier to log a QSO, another
alternative that's already built into NA is to use the "+/=" key, normally
located at the right end of the top row. We added this key a long time ago
for laptop owners who don't have a numeric keypad with a "+" key off to the
side.
For a number of years, I was obsessed with little keyboards. Just about
every year at Dayton some vendor has a stack of brand new IBM keyboards
with nice click feel, however by omitting the numeric keypad the entire
keyboard is about 3"-4" narrower. Since I don't ordinarily use the numeric
keypad, it was a good tradeoff and I bought six for the K8CC multi-multi.
However, this keyboard raises its own issues. First, the electronics in
the keyboard seem to get confused and can't decide if its an older 84-key
AT-style keyboard or a newer 101-key extended keyboard. When it reverts to
84-key mode (sometimes, in the middle of a contest!), the result is that
the F11 and F12 keys quit working. Since I use F11 a LOT, this is a
bummer. Furthermore, as I've gotten used to 101-key extended keyboards on
every other desktop computer I use (home "big" computer, work computer,
etc.) the variation in layout drove me crazy. I've finally standardized on
a good IBM 101-key keyboard for all my computers.
Lastly, my favorite "stealth" key is Alt-V, which toggles between two
preset CW speeds. In SS, I set up one speed for 32 WPM and the other for
28 WPM. When somebody slow calls, pressing Alt-V slows me down. When the
QSO is finished, another Alt-V gets me back up to speed. When doing SO2R,
there is a separate pair of keying speeds for each radio, so changing
speeds or toggling Alt-V does not effect the other radio.
73,
Dave/K8CC
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