Hi all,
Re high-speed paddle sending:
I tried for some years to send at 40 wpm using my (iambic, Brown Brothers)
paddle and found that while I could send CHARACTERS at this speed, I could
not send correctly ratioed morse - that is, my characters were more widely
spaced, and if I attempted to close up the spacing my brain lost lock.
I was attempting to do this because I regularly conversed with keyboard ops
who sent this beautiful, armchair copy at 40 wpm, and I had no keyboard.
Nevertheless, I could read them well, and it galled me to think that I could
read faster than I could send error-free.
Eventually, I gave up. I came to the conclusion that sending correct morse at
40 wpm on a paddle required the same degree of virtuosity as attained by
concert pianists - and I also play piano. I built the first of several
keyboards, then
wrote the first of several keyboard software packages for homebrew micro,
Commodore-64, then PC. Now whenever I want to converse above 35 wpm I
fire up Sergei, UA9SOV's excellent "CwType", knowing that the morse I send
will be error-free and conversationally better composed.
Since then, I have taped and/or digitized many high speed QSOs.
I humbly suggest that the vast majority of ops I hear who contend that they
are sending
at 40 wpm or above using paddles are actually sending Farnsworth morse,
that is, faster characters with longer spaces. Now this may well be easier to
read, but it is not "correct morse". In no way is this a criticism of such
ops, or
of any of you. If you CAN achieve 40 wpm plus, sending with correct spacing,
I salute you! I'd love to receive a WAV file of such paddle sending, to
comment
on in my column in the NZART Journal "Break-In".
Gary ZL1AN
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