[TenTec] Keyer paddle

[Gary Smith]

> Gentlemen . . . please . . . if you're moving an Iambic paddle around when
> you send . . . then you're using it wrong. . . I use a Kent and lately a GHD
> Optical paddle and neither one of them will move . . . neither did the
> bencher when I had it . . . and use nothing underneath them.  You need to
> check out Chuck Adams web page on how to send with an Iambic paddle:
> 
> http://www.qsl.net/k7qo/sending.html
> 
> 73 de Rick, WQ8Q

Heheh,

OK...

I'll be the first to admit I'm not the most gentle ham with 
an Eiderdown touch on the key. I've got a 3rd degree 
black belt in Ishinru Karate & play acoustic instruments 
as opposed to electric...

My natural way of squeezing the paddles is, lets say 
more exuberant than others may do. My physical 
sequencing of the squeeze for Iambic keying is correct 
and efficient but I must beg to differ, I am not using it 
wrong. I'm not slapping the paddles, I do push the 
paddles with more force when sending at say 35 wpm & 
up. When this happens, the weight I added to the 
bottom of the key corrects this extra force in that my 
paddle does not get pushed around. 

I would guestimate my fingers are never more than 1/4" 
from the paddle at any time regardless of speed.

An analogy is that if someone plays acoustic guitar and 
then plays electric, they will usually play the electric with 
more force than needed. If they make the music sound 
wonderful even though they're using "too much force", 
are they wrong?

To me, no but that's just my l'il ole opinion. 

I think I can send pretty decent CW up to 40 wpm with 
my paddles so I can't be doing it that wrong. 

Heh, o'course others may differ with that assessment.

:)

Cheers,

Gary

Gary Smith

http://musician.dyndns.org

"Man is a social creature who does not like his fellow 
beings"
     - Mark Twain -