There would be more than a little hint of NIHS at ARRL HQ (Not Invented
Here Syndrome). Perhaps if it wasn't discussed by Hiram Percy Maxim or
F. E. Handy, its inappropriate, though the latest QEX has me wondering
about its focus with articles on stuff that was fairly obvious, dumb,
and poorly researched, mixed with exotica about SDR in FPGA that is only
reproducible if one can find the chosen parts and the codes somewhere on
an ARRL server, that the article does not stand alone and will be
totally useless in a couple years, sooner if the needed code files are
not kept available. Searching the new ARRL web site is very frustrating.
I'd think maybe your paper would be appropriate for a the contesting
journal or QEX, probably less so for QST which caters to the newbie most
often. I am not a newbie so it doesn't take long to read QST anymore.
I have never developed a useful keyer skill good enough to put on the
air, I stumble along with my straight key at 22 to 25 wpm with bursts to
29 or 30 and wear out my ears at FD before my arm. I can understand how
the single lever paddle takes fewer motions, its also easier to master.
The arguments for the iambic keyer are that the motions are less
repetitive and can be shorter allowing longer operating periods without
glass arm (old name for carpel tunnel syndrome). That sqeezing is easier
than rocking the hand back and forth. I'm not too sure of that but not
having mastered either I'm not a good judge of their efficacies.
I'm probably spoiled, my dad and I took a Candler System code course
about 1954 that gave us great fists with a straight key and included
exercises to prevent glass arm. Working my dad for decades I could only
tell the difference between his fist on a straight key and his keyer by
the extra dot errors with the keyer that are so common. With the code
speeds on VHF falling, I may have to go to a keyer if I can find one or
build one that will run at 3 wpm because I can't send slow by hand, 15
is hard, 12 is impossibly slow for me. Then I should probably go to a
keyboard driven keyer so I can splat to memory at 60 or 80 wpm, then
loaf while its sent at 3 wpm for those that didn't pass the boyscout
code test at 5 or 13 wpm.
73, Jerry, K0CQ
On 1/7/2011 3:54 PM, Mike Hyder -N4NT- wrote:
I submitted a paper comparing the number of discrete motions needed to send
code using an iambic key versus a single-lever paddle. The single-lever is
more efficient. The ARRL said it was not interested in articles like that.
I always call them "The A - R - double-L."
73, Mike N4NT
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