http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2a4scmlC ... re=related

Carl

Do you find her hand motion somewhat strange? The way she brings her thumb up like that....haven't seen that before.
The vid from BB-59 was a good one also.

Thats to add a little delay to the dashes to give a bit of individual "swing". I do similar and was just the way I learned to use it at 16 when I got a bug for my birthday. Wish I could still do that but been using a keyer too long. Maybe time to practice as I still have the same bug, a Vibroplex Presentation model.

Thats Denise Stoops from KPH and her sending is so sweet I copy in my head. Sad to see that go away.

Carl

Impressive since I can't even listen that fast!

I suppose when your fingernails are an inch long you wind up adopting an odd looking way of grasping the key.

I can recall a high speed morse intercept operator that used a bug like that at Torrejon AFB in Madrid, Spain in 1959-1960. My father was a teletype and crypto technician and I would go to the AACS shop after school and hang out and listen to the spare receiver (R390A) usually BBC or some music and ride home with Dad. That guy could talk to you while he received or sent, smoke a cigarette and drink coffee and not miss a beat.

Carl - Thanks for posting. This provides some kind of closure for me. I had no idea who Denise was. This is an SWL report as I was building a new XMIT antenna and could not work them, but I did run a wire around the shack and received on my TS-940S-AT.

Bill

Well, my CW is a bit rusty and the guy talking at the beginning didn't help much but after listening to the clip a few times this is what I got.
Perhaps some of you guys who are a bit better can correct me where I missed but I think I got
it all. She has some problems with her "O's" and "P's" and it through me off a bit or perhaps I'm just gettin' old....

I got:

CQ CQ de KPH KPH KPH CLOSING MESSAGE FOLLOWS space DEAR GODDESS
THE MEMBERS OF THE MARITIME AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY ARE YOUR HUMBLE SERVANTS AND WE THANK YOU FOR PROTECTING US THIS PAST YEAR AS WE CONTINUED OUR STEWARDSHIP OF THE STATIONS KPH AND KSM
THE MUSIC OF THE MORSE HAS GLADNED/mistake/GLADDENED THE HEARTS OF MANY AS WE
HAVE CROSSED THE BARRIERS OF TIME AND SPACE WE ASK YOUR AID AND GUIDANCE IN OUR
DECISIONS AND ACTIONS DURING THE COMING YEAR AND THAT WE BE WORTHY OF THE EQUIPMEN/
mistake/ EQUIPMENT AND TRADITION THAT HAS BEEN ENTRUSTED INTO OUR HUMBLE HANDS
BLESS ALSO THE EARS AROUND THE WORLD THAT SHARE THE FRUITS OF OUR LABORS

ZUT 73 & 88 DE KPH

Pete, K7PP
T2-13-8665

Pete, I think you did great. I used to be pretty good with CW and a bug was my choice. I always had to go a few characters to pick up the timing of the bounce before I could settle in. I could hear this in her sending too. I didn't hear much of a "swing" and she is good about letting the bug dictate her speed. All in all, a very pleasant fist that is easy to copy. I don't have my bug or my license any more but this makes me itch for it a little bit.

Tony

Well, that was impressive. I had my first chance to handle a Vibroplex bug at a hamfest last weekend. I wonder if some of the raggedy sounding (to my ears) code I hear on the air is due to a badly adjusted bug. I admit to being "spoiled" by iambic keyers. Denise was too fast for me to copy but her code sounded clean. I have to wonder if someone who does that every day for a living sits there daydreaming while they send.
-DS

I would expect so.
As a ham, I used to daydream when listening to slow senders.

Denise stumbled a few times while sending and Im sure that holding up the text for a camera wasnt her normal daily drill

I used to handle traffic as a teenager and would sometimes drift off after a bunch of long and boring ones on nets where I had to QRS from my normal speed. I soon stayed just on the high speed ones until I could move along at 35wpm comfortably. Never could get the bug to sound good faster, probably my Banana Boat swing

Carl

Don't discount your "banana boat swing", Carl. Only the best operators have it.
It allows them to consistently form the right spacing between words which keeps
them from running the words together. Consistency causes less fatigue on the guy trying
to copy and creates the perception of "flow".
It's kind of like a good drummer in a band.
I've been a CW op for 60 years and it still eludes me.

Peter

That was a joy to listen to. I likewise copy in my head. Learned to do it back when I was a novice because I often worked a couple of people who were always pushing 20 WPM (K6KOL - now K6XK, and WB6PCQ-SK). Copying with pencil at 20 would give my hand cramps.

I was also pushing my sending to the limit for a straight key at the time. I could do 20 for about 2 minutes or 18 pretty much continuous, but I had to have the J-38 adjusted just right.

Later I got a bug (for free from a friend, ex- WB6NSB), and subsequently built a keyer (3 IC RTL logic). The bug took a little getting used to because I am left handed and the bug was not So I send with a straight key left handed and with a bug or keyer right handed. I'm so confused!

Curtis Eickerman

And here I thought it was a razz!

Some of the OT's mentioned it and I thought they were just tweaking a youngster. Come to think of it I rarely had repeat requests and rated high on the grading reports. It just came natural and I didnt have to work at it...maybe my musical backround contributed.
Plus used a bug well into the 80's, even in contests.

You made my day!

Carl

Did anyone ever have you send the words "best bent wire"? My instructor pointed out the musical aspect of that phrase.

Curtis Eickerman

Nope, I never had an instructor other than code practice in HS prior to the Novice on a WW2 tape machine.

Carl

Thanks, Carl. Inspiring! Great admiration for what I saw in the video.

I moved from the bug to keyers/paddles in my first 3-5 years licensed, but I do know how to run a bug and sound reasonably good. It's tiring, though. My first keyer was a tube circuit I built from the 63 ARRL Handbook. I think my first paddle was my Vibroplex bug, temporarily modified. Later I bought myself a Brown Brothers iambic paddle. Still have it. Probably the best paddle I've ever owned.

I copied in my head. I could hand copy that if needed, probably just barely. Sounded like maybe 20-25wpm?

David