Iambic A/B

This is a follow-up to the previous "Squeeze Keying" video; softening the stance on the iambic modes and showing how more squeezing can be had.

[@craigmatheny9099]

Great video. Thank you for posting that. It answered my questions.

[@EssexCountyPhoto]

Beautiful key, great video and incredible live display on the left. I've just started learning cw with a Morserino & a Bamatech TP-3. Now, I have a beginner question: does the pitch of the cw "sound" affect the amount of data being transmitted? I hear a lot of very high pitch sounds on POTA / QRP videos, is there a technical reason or is it just personal preference? I'm asking for a friend who has tinnitus and struggles with very high pitch sounds... 😉 Cheers! 73 de 2E0HJN / Essex County / UK

[@AshLeaFen]

I’m not an expert, but nobody else has jumped in yet after a week. I believe that the carrier wave itself doesn’t have a “pitch”. It’s in radio frequency ranges (MHz at least). The tone comes from the radio mixing in an audible beat frequency. So the pitch you hear is completely up to your radio-up to you, assuming it’s adjustable on your radio. It may change a bit depending on whether you’re tuning to the exact frequency being transmitted (zero beat) or slightly off-the mixed tone will be different. Many times people hunting in POTA will purposely transmit slightly off of zero beat to stand out from the crowd. So you’ll hear a variety of tones. Still, all of the tones should be able to be shifted down for easier listening with tinnitus. And anyway, it should have nothing to do with the amount of data carried. Mainly just a personal preference. Hope that helps!

[@EssexCountyPhoto]

@@AshLeaFen Awesome! Thank you very much for the explanation! 👍🏻

[@ImHungryMK]

New to CW, this key looks outstanding and I sure it also feels great. Can you post the make and model?

[@AshLeaFen]

It’s the Begali Pearl: www.i2rtf.com/pearl.html They make some wonderful keys!

[@marlomontanaro3233]

I agree! I'm not sure why so many people in your poll said they used Iambic B. Is that the default on a radio with an internal keyer or something? Seems like if you're learning to use paddles, A or Ultimatic would be much easier to learn. I found A to be a natural (Ultimatic was never a choice I remember in keyers in the 1980's). I'm a bit of a slapper anyway, so it doesn't bother me... but I think I'm going to close the spacing a bit and make an effort to squeeze the paddles instead of slapping on some occasions. Thanks for your excellent videos!

[@marcinmerrimack1726]

Nice followup video, though it wasn’t always clear which iambic mode you were using at any given moment. As you said, it’s not always about the amount of motion, but the ease of motion for error-free sending. Particularly at higher speeds. There must be a reason that many high-speed operators prefer single-lever over dual paddles. For a few of the difficult characters, maybe you could graphically compare the timing constraints for each of the three modes. I believe it could be shown that Ultimatic is the most ‘forgiving’ mode in that respect. That would clinch your original argument for the superiority of Ultimatic mode at least for high-speed (QRQ) CW.

[@K6ARK]

Your sending errors for the U are due to the order in which you release the squeeze. If you release the "dit" lever before releasing the "dah", it will send correctly. There is no such thing as releasing the levers at the same time - one is always released before the other. Iambic B simply "remembers" a lever press ahead of the start of the next character which requires releasing the levers in the proper order to send the correct number of elements. Thanks for the video demonstration.

[@AshLeaFen]

Hey, thanks for the comment! I saw the K6ARK notification and thought it was for a new video of yours. I tapped to watch it and, wait, what? A comment? On *my* video?! Here’s a clip of the built-in keyer in the IC-705, set very slow so you can see that I release the dit side first, during the dah. It still produces an F: www.dropbox.com/s/tr4eftmhj34wg5r/dididahdit.mov?dl=0 I had thought that the Iambic B logic was: if you’re squeezing “going into” an element then it remembers that you were “squeezing” and, after that element sounds and you’ve released the paddles, an additional *opposite* element is sent. I thought always opposite to the last element squeezed. Does the particular last paddle released affect it? If instead I squeeze only during the second dit then the final opposite is a dah and I get a U, but I find that difficult to do at normal speed. And of course, if I completely alternate to the dah paddle (release dit side) *before* the dah sounds then it’s not considered a squeeze at the last element and it stops (no final opposite) after producing a U.

[@K6ARK]

Ha! Awesome. 😁@@AshLeaFen this may be too hard to explain in a KZbin comment, but we plan to cover this topic on one of Kyle (AA0Z's) CW streams in the near future. I'll follow up later here when I get a chance as well.

[@AshLeaFen]

Wonderful!

[@W7AWE]

I am just learning and would like to know what software program shows you the squeeze and character? 😊. Thank you for this video

[@AshLeaFen]

This was something I made just for the video. But there *is* an experimental version of it here: didahdit.com/experiment/usb_keyer/

[@daveengstrom9250]

Why is there 2 modes in the first place? There must be a reason.

[@MauriceCalis]

What device are you using that allows for Ultimatic?

[@AshLeaFen]

I haven’t seen any radios that support it natively. I use an external keyer (K1EL WinKeyer).

[@charlesfritzii8991]

If you don’t squeeze key should you a single lever paddle?

[@AshLeaFen]

Yep, may as well I suppose. Simpler. I personally like squeezing of course, but the simplicity of single level is elegant. Very direct. No keyer. No speed adjustment. Tempting…

[@GlennMusser]

Can you share the software/hardware you use to display the key timing on your computer screen?

[@AshLeaFen]

The visualization is something I made that works with my own keyer that I built. I did put a similar version up here, that works with the Ham Radio Solutions USB keyer interface: didahdit.com/experiment/usb_keyer/

[@RUSGrus]

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