KX2 versus K3 Keyer Speed

[Phil Hystad-3]

I think I have detected a subtle difference between the keyer speed of my KX2 and my K3.  Is this possible?  How far off?  About one word per minute I think.  The KX2 being faster that is.  Thus, I run my K3 at 20 wpm as my normal speed and my KX2 at 19 wpm to obtain the same feel.  Defininately not large enough to be a bother, I am mostly just curious as to whether this is true.

I am using the very same Begali paddle with both rigs.

Anyone else see this behavior or is it my imagination.  It could be my imagination as I imagine a lot of different things but they are not usually about my KX2 and K3.

73, phil, K7PEH

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[k6dgw]

Sure.  Speed definitions for Morse code are a bit fuzzy at best.  
Measured in WPM, it depends on the "words" since it will take a lot
longer to send "JY1JP" than to send "N5EEE" even though they both have 5
letters. The standard "word" originally was "MORSE" which has 50 dot
times.  Urban legend has it that it was changed to "PARIS" [also 50 dot
times] when the world was defining the Prime Meridian, but that's
another probably apocryphal story.

If you can observe the keying when sending continuous dots ... AND the
key down/key up times are equal ... AND the key down time when sending
continuous dashes is 3 times the dot time ... AND the key up time on
continuous dashes is the same as the key-up time for dots, then you can
compare two different keyers. With hand sending however, 1 WPM is
probably way into the noise.

73,

Fred ("Skip") K6DGW
Sparks NV USA
Washoe County DM09dn

On 8/11/2017 7:54 AM, Phil Hystad wrote:
> I think I have detected a subtle difference between the keyer speed of my KX2 and my K3.  Is this possible?

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[John Oppenheimer]

Hi Phil,

Yes there is a little difference.

One standard for WPM can be found in:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morse_code
as T = 1200 / W or WPM = 1200 / T
Where T is dot duration in mS.

To remove weighting, using an oscilloscope to measure Dot and Space
time. The keyer is using the micro-controller, which is doing other
things, therefore there is a little jitter. To filter jitter out,
oscilloscope averaging is enabled.

K3  116.0 mS (Dot+Space) = 20.7 WPM
KX2 114.8 mS (Dot+Space) = 20.9 WPM

John KN5L


On 08/11/2017 09:54 AM, Phil Hystad wrote:
> I think I have detected a subtle difference between the keyer speed of my KX2 and my K3.  Is this possible?  How far off?  About one word per minute I think.  The KX2 being faster that is.  Thus, I run my K3 at 20 wpm as my normal speed and my KX2 at 19 wpm to obtain the same feel.  Defininately not large enough to be a bother, I am mostly just curious as to whether this is true.
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[Phil Hystad-3]

John,

Thanks for the comments below.  I actually thought of putting this on my oscilloscope to measure the actual timing but I was just too lazy.  Another idea I had which I may still do is to record a string of dots from the KX2 and the K3 and then use signal processing to measure the timing between dots.  I figure I can use Mathematica (Wolfram) for this.  This is what I might do when I get an afternoon free to do it — maybe in the dead of winter.

73, phil

> On Aug 11, 2017, at 11:22 AM, John Oppenheimer <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> Hi Phil,
>
> Yes there is a little difference.
>
> One standard for WPM can be found in:
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morse_code
> as T = 1200 / W or WPM = 1200 / T
> Where T is dot duration in mS.
>
> To remove weighting, using an oscilloscope to measure Dot and Space
> time. The keyer is using the micro-controller, which is doing other
> things, therefore there is a little jitter. To filter jitter out,
> oscilloscope averaging is enabled.
>
> K3  116.0 mS (Dot+Space) = 20.7 WPM
> KX2 114.8 mS (Dot+Space) = 20.9 WPM
>
> John KN5L
>
>
> On 08/11/2017 09:54 AM, Phil Hystad wrote:
>> I think I have detected a subtle difference between the keyer speed of my KX2 and my K3.  Is this possible?  How far off?  About one word per minute I think.  The KX2 being faster that is.  Thus, I run my K3 at 20 wpm as my normal speed and my KX2 at 19 wpm to obtain the same feel.  Defininately not large enough to be a bother, I am mostly just curious as to whether this is true.
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
> Message delivered to [hidden email]

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