Subj : Re: Queen City Power Outage
To   : Ed Vance
From : n2qfd
Date : Thu Aug 15 2024 03:01 pm

 EV> I can't remember if I seen a Cooti Key B4.
 EV> In one image I noticed the wires lead off to the right side, I'm
 EV> wondering if you are a Southpaw like I am?
 EV> The Cootie Key lets you space the dots at a rate that comfortable to

 Well Ed. I think the Wire placement is coincidental. Had to look up south paw! I do lead with the right on the desk. 

  Cootie Keys.. I got into that some time back when I was doing a lot of CW and getting some wrist pain from the J-38. I still have it and cherish it as the key my father gave when I first moved out and set up my own station. However I found as I worked with my hands my arm was not in it as much as my heart wanted! Back in the early 2000's I was working on water wells in the southern Adirondacks which could do a number on you. Winters meant a lot of shoveling for us and my father-in-law was still working his little softwood mill and as a contractor so I was often shanghaied into tailing lumber, helping finish piece work or some contracting job from plumbing and electrical to joint work and taping sheet rock or roofing and siding... You never say no to a job in the mountains. Eventually I found work surveying but that wasn't much easier on the body, just different. So the cooties gave me back the ability to enjoy a longer CW session again. They as you said let you have total control over how you shape the characters. I think folks that send fast on them have a sort of unique sound it it. At this point I'm pretty well sold on the Vibroplex. I thought I made a mistake but I love it, I love the real feedback it gives you. The keyer in the radio works fine but it's like sending CW as a mime with no weight but the air. 

  Hooray for old machines! May we all be so well regarded long into the future! 

  Mal

N2QFD{Queen City BBS}:// "Does this need to be said? Does this need to be said
by me? Does this need to be said by me right now?" - Craig Ferguson 

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Raspberry Pi/32)
 * Origin: Queen City BBS (21:1/154)

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