Single versus Dual Lever Paddles

[Bill W4ZV]

         I recently saw comments somewhere about
K7JA "slapping'" the dual lever paddle during the
Jay Leno show indicating he had learned on a
single lever.  This caused me to question whether
dual paddle (iambic) keys are used by the transmit
Champions of High Speed Telegrapy (HST) as
determined in the annual IARU HST Championships.
The simple answer is:  NO.

                                 73,  Bill  W4ZV

Andrea, IZ4FHT wrote:
 >By the way, when I met Lazlo HA3NU (a guy who sets the keyer to 60wpm
and calls it "slow" ;-) at a big italian hamfest in Pordenone a few
weeks ago, he said he preferred single lever paddles, especially for
truly extra-high speeds.

W4ZV (in a PM to Lacy HA3NU):

         Very interesting!  I noticed you were IARU Region 1
coordinator for the HST Championships at one time.  I've
heard that many operators from former East Block countries
prefer single paddle and wonder if you know if that is still
true for the top HST championship results (in Transmit)?  It
appears many former East Block competitors still dominated
the top TX results in 2004.

         I also prefer a single paddle and have never seen the
benefit to switching to dual paddle.  I'm just curious
about what type of paddle the top HST TX guys use.

                                                 73, Bill  W4ZV

HA3NU's response:

>Hi Bill,
>
>It was interesting to see how fast news go around the world ie. my sentence
>about speed. Hi Hi
>To tell the true I said for 60 WPM (that was set on the rig)
>"This is less than 60, it is approximately 50 WPM only"
>60 WPM is hard to TX for me too.
>You know it well, most of HST competitors prefer single paddle and vast
>majority of top contesters use
>home brew paddle!
>The 2004 results are still OK. The next World Championship will be in June
>and may be new records
>will be born again. Barry W2UP will be also there, I am almost daily contact
>him by Email.
>Should you know other things of HST, I am redy to answer to you.
>
>73 Lacy HA3NU

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[David A. Belsley]

>         I recently saw comments somewhere about
> K7JA "slapping'" the dual lever paddle during the
> Jay Leno show indicating he had learned on a
> single lever.

I think I have been following this thread pretty closely, and I don't
recall anyone saying K7JA was slapping the paddle.  I think you may be
confusing things with a recent post that I made, in which I indicated
that Walter Winchell was slapping a bug (and producing random garbage).
  I saw K7JA sending, and believe me, it was not slapping. It was solid
technique, and I was amused that he had such presence of mind that he
actually adjusted the position of the Bencher before starting.

best wishes,

dave belsley, w1euy
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[Ron D'Eau Claire-2]

Bill, W4ZV wrote:
I recently saw comments somewhere about
K7JA "slapping'" the dual lever paddle during the
Jay Leno show indicating he had learned on a
single lever.  This caused me to question whether
dual paddle (iambic) keys are used by the transmit
Champions of High Speed Telegrapy (HST) as
determined in the annual IARU HST Championships.
The simple answer is:  NO.

------------------------------

Gee, I watched the clip closely and I didn't see any undue "slapping" or any
suggestion he was squeezing in Iambic mode either.

That's an interesting observation about the lack Iambic keys in HST work,
but not really surprising.

I used a keyer for over 20 years, and always used dual paddles in Iambic
(squeeze) mode. I used it for the same reason I use a bug, and from what
I've read it's the same reason I read that the wire and radio services
switched to bugs. Not for speed, but for comfort that allows an operator to
send with less effort for hours on end.

The speed ability is a nice side-effect of more efficient key operation for
those working circuits where high speeds were allowed, but it is certainly
not the major reason for choosing a bug or keyer for those who do a lot of
"pounding brass" (especially all day!).

Ron AC7AC



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[VR2BrettGraham]

By slapping, perhaps W4ZV meant a greater movement of fingers
than is really necessary to work a paddle.  At least that's the way
I took it & in the last shot of Chip sending, it looked like he could
have been getting into character, with more exaggerated finger
movement as a bug - at least for me - seems to encourage.

73, VR2BrettGraham

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[Paul Bruneau]

As was stated, the slapping comment was not aimed at the Leno guy. It
was about some old news guy or something. I really hesitated to send
this for fear that it just adds to the noise about this "topic", but it
doesn't seem to want to die!

On May 18, 2005, at 4:51 AM, VR2BrettGraham wrote:

> By slapping, perhaps W4ZV meant a greater movement of fingers
> than is really necessary to work a paddle.  At least that's the way
> I took it & in the last shot of Chip sending, it looked like he could
> have been getting into character, with more exaggerated finger
> movement as a bug - at least for me - seems to encourage.
>
> 73, VR2BrettGraham

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