1,000 percent TJ! Thanks for noting this. I've been saying this myself when people mention the LICW club and starting with a SK. I don't know if they still preach starting with a SK, but if they do, I totally disagree with the concept of "learning the timing" properly. It's nonsense as far as I'm concerned. But, I'm a huge fan of LICW club otherwise and their efforts in getting people involved with CW/Morse Code. 73, de...
@user-qd6eh6mj4u Yeah. I went through CW academy myself. Good program although I didn’t find the over the air class reviews very helpful. Their curricular is good, however.
Let me preface this by saying I'm an instructor at LICW. The reason we suggest people start on a straight key has nothing to do with learning timing. When you send on a straight key, it forces you to create the dits and dahs yourself. That character formation helps solidify the characters in your head. It's actually an aid to help you learn to copy. That being said, we just suggest people start on a straight key. It's definitely not a requirement. We have quite a few students who start on paddles, and that's 100% fine. Most students end up on paddles eventually anyway. Hell, I'm on paddles 95% of the time myself, but I'm proficient on all types of keys (paddle, straight, bug, cootie).
Hey Im on the path.... For me sending with a straight will add another layer of difficulty for being aware of the timing of dits and dahs... and your are right the rhythm throw's me off even the pitch throws me off sometimes.... Its difficult but we will cw on!
No throwing tomatoes here 🙂 Here is a rough analogy. I'm a guitar geek, and am learning classical right now. Classical guitar is played fingerstyle, and you use your thumb, index, middle, and ring fingers of the non-fretting hand to pluck the strings. To facilitate smooth playing, it is considered best practice to alternate fingers, mostly the index and middle fingers. Repeatedly using just one finger is really hard, especially in fast passages. But a few world class players such as Jeff Beck (RIP, and not classical guitar) used almost exclusively his thumb on electric guitar. But all in all, I agree with you that to send smooth CW at more than much more than novice speeds is going to be a lot more challenging without a paddle and keyer. 73 de Gary W5PAZ
@@GarySchiltz great post! I play bass guitar and it's similar with the index and middle finger alternating... But one of my favorite bass players Louis Johnson uses his thumb and frequently on the fret board!
Good topic. Iambic started as a way to shorten the sending of certain letters and as a result, shortening the length of phrases, words, etc. However, I don’t have the data to prove this, but I would bet that the large majority of folks use dual lever paddles without the squeeze (iambic) technique. IMO, there is no point in using a dual lever if you aren’t going to squeeze. I don’t like the squeeze technique myself, and so I only use single levers.
1,000 percent TJ! Thanks for noting this. I've been saying this myself when people mention the LICW club and starting with a SK. I don't know if they still preach starting with a SK, but if they do, I totally disagree with the concept of "learning the timing" properly. It's nonsense as far as I'm concerned. But, I'm a huge fan of LICW club otherwise and their efforts in getting people involved with CW/Morse Code. 73, de...
Thanks! Im hoping to get people excited about this really fun mode!
@user-qd6eh6mj4u Yeah. I went through CW academy myself. Good program although I didn’t find the over the air class reviews very helpful. Their curricular is good, however.
Let me preface this by saying I'm an instructor at LICW. The reason we suggest people start on a straight key has nothing to do with learning timing. When you send on a straight key, it forces you to create the dits and dahs yourself. That character formation helps solidify the characters in your head. It's actually an aid to help you learn to copy. That being said, we just suggest people start on a straight key. It's definitely not a requirement. We have quite a few students who start on paddles, and that's 100% fine. Most students end up on paddles eventually anyway. Hell, I'm on paddles 95% of the time myself, but I'm proficient on all types of keys (paddle, straight, bug, cootie).
Hey Im on the path.... For me sending with a straight will add another layer of difficulty for being aware of the timing of dits and dahs... and your are right the rhythm throw's me off even the pitch throws me off sometimes.... Its difficult but we will cw on!
Went straight to the paddle.
Straight key- is MAIN! If you can operated on "straight key"- you can on different key's!
RT5T - I heard you on 20M last week, but you were QRT by the time I turned on the amplifier.
Thank you… 😀
Got my ticket a couple months ago and have been thinking of learning CW. I will most likely start with a straight key only because I already have one.
That's fantastic!
No throwing tomatoes here 🙂 Here is a rough analogy. I'm a guitar geek, and am learning classical right now. Classical guitar is played fingerstyle, and you use your thumb, index, middle, and ring fingers of the non-fretting hand to pluck the strings. To facilitate smooth playing, it is considered best practice to alternate fingers, mostly the index and middle fingers. Repeatedly using just one finger is really hard, especially in fast passages. But a few world class players such as Jeff Beck (RIP, and not classical guitar) used almost exclusively his thumb on electric guitar. But all in all, I agree with you that to send smooth CW at more than much more than novice speeds is going to be a lot more challenging without a paddle and keyer. 73 de Gary W5PAZ
@@GarySchiltz great post! I play bass guitar and it's similar with the index and middle finger alternating... But one of my favorite bass players Louis Johnson uses his thumb and frequently on the fret board!
Thank you.
Next question- iambic vs single paddle?
Good topic. Iambic started as a way to shorten the sending of certain letters and as a result, shortening the length of phrases, words, etc. However, I don’t have the data to prove this, but I would bet that the large majority of folks use dual lever paddles without the squeeze (iambic) technique. IMO, there is no point in using a dual lever if you aren’t going to squeeze. I don’t like the squeeze technique myself, and so I only use single levers.
Awesome suggestion - I will do a video on this! Thank you for the suggestion!