Topband: Bugs

[Bruce Whitney]

First licensed in 1964 - novice, only CW with a J-38..  I lusted for the Hallicrafters ha-1 TO keyer but it was beyond my budget as a youth.  But in 1968 my friend Paul and I designed and built one of the first electronic keyers using RTL logic- flip flops and gates.   It had “dot & dash memory” but was not Iambic… I loved  that keyer and used it for many years. Alas, RTL was very short lived, soon replaced by TTL and then CMOS!  We never bothered to publish a schematic…
I can’t say I regret skipping right over the bug era.:.   Maybe that is why I have so little regard or appreciation for so many guys murdering CW with them?
My heart is with precise sounding code! I always thought the machine at ARRL HDQ to be my standard!
73, Bruce W8RA


> On Jul 6, 2023, at 6:18 PM, Jim Brown <jim at audiosystemsgroup.com> wrote:
> 
> On 7/6/2023 12:53 PM, Richard (Rick) Karlquist wrote:
>> The reader's digest version is that you can minimize the learning
>> curve by using a single action paddle.  This largely eliminates iambic
>> action (which you won't miss), even if the keyer supposedly supports
>> iambic.
> 
> Great advice. Especially with keyers that won't let you turn Iambic off!
> 
> 73, Jim K9YC
> _________________
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