[UK-CONTEST] CW Sending speed

[Danny Higgins]

Many, many years ago I wrote a BASIC program to send random 5 letter/number
groups of CW on a PC.  You entered your target speed (e.g. 40 WPM) and your
starting speed (e.g. 25 WPM) and it would send the letters at 40 WPM, but
spaced to give a data rate of 25 WPM.  You typed the letters back in to the
PC and if you got it right, the speed would slowly increase (i.e. the gaps
between the letters would decrease).  If you made a mistake, the speed would
stay constant and the letter you got wrong would be weighted so that it
would appear more often.  After a period of error free entry the weighting
would drop back again and the speed would continue to increase slowly.  You
either got your morse up to your typing speed or your typing up to your
morse speed.  You could enable the letters so that it suited the touch
typing lessons.  I sent it to the RSGB for publication, but the response I
got was "our readers would not be interested in typing in 3 pages of BASIC
code".

I never got round to updating it for C or Java, but it should be a trivial
task for some budding programmer.

Danny, G3XVR

-----Original Message-----
From: uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of David, G3YYD
Sent: 27 November 2009 22:26
To: uk-contest at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] CW Sending speed

Dave

I learnt to type at over 60wpm in the early 70s when I took up RTTY with 
an old Creed machine (the one I had was made in 1944). It took a lot of 
QSOs but soon got it running almost at its maximum speed then I added an 
electronic speed converter so the machine ran at 56 baud (about 74 WPM). 
I learnt to fill the 80 character buffer so I was typing a lot faster 
than 60 WPM and had to pause from time to time so as not to overflow the 
buffer.

Take up rag chewing on data modes, do not use the "message" buttons and  
you will soon get your typing speed up to where you can type a lot 
faster than you can receive at on CW.

David G3YYD

Dave Sergeant wrote:
> On 26 Nov 2009 at 21:33, Ken Eastty wrote:
>
>   
>> I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the problem of typing speed (or
>> even writing speed). I believe that unless you are a touch typist (& how
>> many of us are?) it's difficult to type with two fingers at much more
>> than 20 w.p.m? 
>>     
>
> Well I put my hand up as someone who does touch type - I taught myself 
> in my teens and it is probably the most useful thing I ever did. Not 
> actually having to look at the keyboard but just type the right keys 
> helps a lot (just as I am doing typing this).
>
> OK in contests I mainly do search and pounce, as on QRP CQing normally 
> gets me nowhere. I work truly multi hand - when entering callsigns and 
> QSO details both hands are above the keyboard. When tuning, my left 
> hand is on the tuning knob of the rig, when calling and working the 
> right hand is on the key. Occasionally I move over and pick up the 
> tea/coffee cup or grab a quick bite of a sandwich in between overs. 
> Yes, you can do it - and I am also one of those who NEVER uses the F1 
> key or whatever, everything is hand sent, it is much easier to stay in 
> control that way.
>
> As to whether you can do it at 40wpm, I suspect that is a bit quick 
> even for the professional typists. But you can most definitely do it at 
> 30-35wpm.
>
> 73 Dave G3YMC
>
> http://www.davesergeant.com
>
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