[RTTY] Keyboard vs Mouse

[Larry Gauthier (K8UT)]

Thanks all - for the nice comments about the videos. I'm glad you found them 
helpful. I also found it helpful just having to make them - as there is no 
better way to learn something than by having to teach it (errr... make a 
video of it ;-)

Regarding Keyboard vs Mouse: I keyboard CW contests; I mouse RTTY contests.

I am also a proficient keyboarder but the overwhelming benefit of mouse-only 
contesting lured me to the rodent for RTTY contests. I use a 4 button 
Microsoft wireless mouse, with AutoHotKey to define the side buttons as 
<Esc> and <Enter>, and the wheel for VFO up/down. That combination coupled 
with ESM minimizes the times my hands must stray to the keyboard or the 
radio during a contest. If nothing else, sitting back and using a mouse for 
90% of a contest sure reduces the tension in back/shoulders/arms that I find 
after 10 hours of CW.

Having said all this, my contest scores will reveal that I am not a very 
good contester, so perhaps my example is not one you should emulate.

-larry
K8UT
-----Original Message----- 
From: David Levine
Sent: Sunday, February 27, 2011 8:09 AM
To: Bill ; RTTY Reflector
Subject: [RTTY] Keyboard vs Mouse

I hope Bill doesn't mind that I pulled his 3830 soapbox comment out and
started a thread on it. I was interested what the rest of the group (and we
all know it isn't a shy group!) thought of the subject, specifically because
I just switched methods. The specific comment is "Goal to not use mouse and
only keyboard. I learned to do that and that it was faster and less error
prone.".

For me, and I'm an extremely proficient typist (hopefully no mistakes in
this email to embarrass me!), I find using the mouse more accurate and
faster vs typing on the keyboard. Up until recently, I used both the mouse
and the keyboard though primarily the mouse. After viewing the recent K8UT
videos on ESM, right click = enter & call stacking using N1MM, for RTTY
contesting I'm also 99% mouse now. Thanks to K8UT for those as well as the
contact yesterday.

Maybe right click vs pressing enter provides no speed difference as long as
your hand was already either on the keyboard or mouse but I think mouse wins
everywhere else. I'm not sure how typing a call could ever be quicker vs a
single click on the name. I can't make a typo using the mouse. The only time
I went to the keyboard was if the copy from noise came in missing a space
around a call, name or state or if the operators macro did not have a
leading or trailing space (grrrr!) and extraneous characters were attached.

So I'm interested in why Bill (and thanks also for the contact yesterday)
feels it is less error prone and quicker to use the keyboard as well as what
the rest of the list thinks.

73,
K2DSL - David



On Sun, Feb 27, 2011 at 6:55 AM, Bill <w9ol at billnjudy.com> wrote:

> W9OL
>
>  <SNIP>
>
> More light snow and freezing rain, requiring attention.
> Goal to have no errors, all qso correct.
> I think I accomplished that.
> Goal to not use mouse and only keyboard.
> I learned to do that and that it was faster and
> less error prone.
>
> Rig Flex5K
> Software N1MM/MMTTY
>
>
_______________________________________________
RTTY mailing list
RTTY at contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/rtty