[CQ-Contest] Paddle Opinions

[Zack Widup]

I can use both equally well. In fact, I noticed an oddity a couple years 
ago on Field Day.  Using an iambic keyer paddle, sometimes I send iambic, 
sometimes I send swiping back and forth, sometimes I use a mixture of both 
at the same time.  And I was doing this without really noticing it up 
until then.

73, Zack W9SZ

On Fri, 19 Oct 2007, Clive Whelan wrote:

> Well consider this:
>
> About ten years ago, a fine CW operator visited my shack,
> and expressed interest in my FT1000MP, which at the time was
> sort of cutting edge . I invited him to sit down and make a
> few QSOs. He looked in horror at the Vibro single lever
> paddle, and confessed that he could only send in iambic
> mode. Thus I had to make the QSOs while he looked and
> listened. I was truly gobsmacked about this incident. Now I
> am less than comfortable when presented with an iambic keyer
> and twin lever paddle, but if I'm careful, I can send
> passable CW thereon. I can probably still handle a
> semi-automatic, and obviously a straight key. At a push,
> I'll even send from a keyboard- hardest of all!
>
> So what the iambic operator doesn't seem to have is
> redundancy, because he took a short cut to sending CW by a
> method which imo has little to no value, but clearly has a
> demerit.
>
> 73
>
> Clive
> GW3NJW
>