On AmateurRadio.com, another venue where this blog shows iself, a comment was left by Ernest, AA1IK with regard to my posting about WB9LPU's new bugs:
Ah-dunno-Larry! It seems to me the last thing this ham world needs is another bug on the air.
Didididididididididididididididid - DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAh,dididididididididiidi-Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah - ddidididi,
When I hear stuff like this I shut the rig off and play my clarinet!
Charter member of the Dead Bug Society! I can hear it now! 'There are lots of good bub ops out there, sure there are!
Ernest does have a point, and I sure as heck won't deny it. You will run into guys who use a bug badly, and it can be painful to listen to. At times like those, I 'd be right next to Ernest, playing the clarinet. But since I don't know how to play the clarinet - the bad bug fists would probably sound better! But in all seriousness, it's not the bug that causes the bad sounding fist. It's the fist that causes the bad sounding fist. If you learn the proper technique and then work at it, there is positively no reason that a bug fist should sound any different than a keyer and paddles or a good straight key fist.
Rich WB9LPU goes out of his way to eliminate those variables in his designs. He responded thusly:
Hi, Ernest
I couldn't agree more with you about the pain of hearing (let alone trying to copy) bad bug sending.
Ever since I began designing bugs, my goal was to keep them from sounding like typical bugs - using features like independent control of dot duration and dot spacing. You are welcome to search YouTube to hear a variety of bugs from my workshop. It is very difficult to hear the "bug signature" or the "Lake Erie swing" in any of them - they do sound like straight keys (well handled, I hope).
But I do wish that I could play the clarinet!
So to borrow a cliche' - bugs don't cause swing ... people cause swing. Used correctly, bugs ARE sweet to listen to; and I've heard a number to excellent fists who just happened to be bug users. Just wish mine was one of them!
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
I don't know guys, I kind of enjoy the swings. At least you can tell one from another. I guess a lot of these ops are ex landline ops anyway. At least you don't have the sterile/prefect sounding keyer sound. Nothing like bad sending to make you stand out :) I like a SLIGHT swing & I like bugs. I have to admit that some people get pretty heavy on the dits. Can't they here what they are sending. I guess I'm getting old. dididididididididah
ReplyDeletedits at 40, dahs at 25 :)
-oow