Topband: CW rhythm, swing, speed

[Donald Chester]

On Sun, Jun 25, 2023, 5:42 AM Michael Rutkaus <mrutkaus at gmail.com> wrote:

> ... most of the time
> had a friendly "swing" to his sending, it sounded like a casual friendly
> conversation.  

Some operators dislike 'swing', while others have said it improves readability.

Something I find that enhances readability with some CW  signals is a slight but audible chirp (no more than a few hertz).  

I have entertained the idea of incorporating a circuit in my VFO that would intentionality add a variable amount of chirp to the signal.  It would be capable of switching to shift the frequency up or down, and the timing of the shift would be variable. Of course it would be capable of being turned off. Something interesting to play around with. Not unlike phone operators experimenting with the sound of their audio.

Chirp and swing are like accents in speech.  Sometimes they are pleasant to listen to, while others are annoying.  Some enhance readability, while other hamper it. Machine perfect CW can become monotonous at times and after a while. 

Don k4kyv