Paddles vs bug vs straight key

[GM0WEZ]

Interesting article from 'Technical Topics' in a 1988 Radcom on how labour-saving paddles and bugs are.

Sending the alphabet on a straight key requires 82 contact closures.

On a bug, this is reduced to 66.

On a paddle without iambic (squeeze) keying (eg a single paddle) , we are down to 53.

On an iambic mode twin paddle, it is only 45.

In real life the benefit is not as great as this. The commonest letters in English, in order, are ETAONRISH. Morse is cunningly designed so that common letters are faster to send (except O anyway, not sure why this is?). On the other hand common prosigns (AR, VA, CT) can be sent with a single squeeze on a double paddle.

The other thing is errors - I certainbly make more of them on the paddle, and correcting an error reduces the effective speed quite a lot.

 

[foggycoder]

I'm being a pedant here but, as an Ultimatic guy, I'm sensitive to the frequent confusion that double paddles are necessarily Iambic.

On the other hand common prosigns (AR, VA, CT) can be sent with a single squeeze on a double paddle.

I think you mean "...a single squeeze on an iambic paddle".
Your statement is certainly true for the (most common) Iambic modes. But prosign AR in Ultimatic takes three squeezes. On the other hand, prosign BT (or a single quote or apostrophe) takes only one squeeze in Ultimatic but three, I think, for Iambic.

I get confused by the difference between Iambic A and Iambic B. Here, for the record, is (I think) the difference:
"If you hold both paddles at the same time, the iambic keyer will send alternate dits and dahs. The difference between mode A and mode B iambic keying is what happens when you release both paddles. In mode A, the keyer will finish with the last dit or dah that it was sending at the time of release. In mode B, if it was sending a dah when you release the paddles, it will add one more dit. If it was sending a dit, it will add one more dah." [sourced from t'internet somewhere]
That's what persuaded me of the logic of Ultimatic mode!

 

[Ham4CW]

Sending the alphabet on a straight key requires 82 contact closures.

On a bug, this is reduced to 66.

On a paddle without iambic (squeeze) keying (eg a single paddle) , we are down to 53.

On an iambic mode twin paddle, it is only 45.

Using a keyboard sender requires only 26 keystrokes! ;D

But would it be any 'fun'?


73, Mark...

 

[gm5bkc]

Using a keyboard sender requires only 26 keystrokes! ;D

But would it be any 'fun'?

73, Mark...

Naa, you can't turn off the lights, slouch back in your chair, close your eyes and rag chew with keyboard CW  ^-^

Glenn AE0Q

 

[MI0PYN]

Naa, you can't turn off the lights, slouch back in your chair, close your eyes and rag chew with keyboard CW  ^-^

I'd like to be able to rag-chew, unfortunately my level is more like sucking on a single strand of frayed cotton...