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[TenTec] Southpaw CW (was Re: Copying CW in your head)

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Subject: [TenTec] Southpaw CW (was Re: Copying CW in your head)
From: pklein@2alpha.net (Peter A. Klein)
Date: Fri, 24 Sep 1999 23:58:05 -0700
Keith Darwin, KD1E says:

>When I was a novice, I learned to send right handed with a straight key
>(I'm right handed).  When I moved to a keyer, I taught myself left handed
>instead of right handed so I could hold a pencil in one hand and send CW
>with the other.  I don't reverse the paddles, I just slide them over to the
>left side of the OP desk.  So to me, the thumb is for dah's and the finger
>is for dits.

Interesting.  I am left-handed.  But I'm the kind of left-hander who uses a
baseball bat or tennis racket like a right-hander.  I also do not "hook" my
hand when writing.  The left brain/right brain theories have something to
say about this.  Anyway, I always found it natural to copy with my left and
send with my right.

In 1990, I had a carpal-tunnel type of injury to my right hand.  During the
time I had rest my right hand, I learned to use the keyer with my left
hand.  I did reverse the paddles, so the thumb was always for dits.  I
consider it an inside-outside thing rather than a left-right thing.

I'm the same way with computer mice.  I'm what I call
ambi-mousey-dexterous.  On my own machines, I have the mouse set up
left-handed.  When I help other people, I use their right-handed setup.
Again, I think of it as an inside-outside thing, rather than a left-right
thing.  What gets me is how all Microsoft documents refer to "left click"
and "right click," so I have learned that when supporting other people, the
index finger is always "left," even if it's "right."  

(And don't anyone get started on the political implications of this!!!  :-)
 
Of course this drives other people nuts when they try to use my machine.
Once a compulsive corporate type actually tried to force me to use a
right-handed mouse on the grounds that he "couldn't support non-standard
setups."

73 from KD7MW,

--- Peter
/\:     ________     __     =========     ,  ,  ,  ,   ,  ,  |'  ,      ,
 / b   |  |  |  |   |  |   |  |   |  |   |  |  |  |   |  |   |  |  ~|' |
/ b b ,| ,| ,| ,|  ,| ,|  '  ,|   | ,|   |__|__|__|   |__|   |  |   |  |
                                ~'                            ========= 


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