In ham radio parlance, someone is said to have a “good fist” when they send code properly. Today, I worked a guy with a great fist — KB5AA.
It’s really a joy to work an operator with a good fist. You can concentrate on the message and not the code, and you can copy a lot faster, too, meaning more information flows in a shorter period of time.
I think the essence of a good fist is proper spacing, both of the character elements and of the characters and words themselves. Poor ops will “slur” characters together. You find yourself wondering, “Was that a ‘K’ or ‘NT'”? The problem is that ops who send like this make you think of the code and not the message. Once you’ve deciphered the code, you then have to read the message.
Proper spacing is also important for words. If you want the op at the other end to copy, “THE NEW,” for example, make sure to include a word space between the first E and the N. If you don’t do this, the op might copy your code as “THEN EW…”
It is also, of course, important to make as few mistakes as possible, but imho, proper spacing is more important. Just as a reader will automatically correct misspellings, so will an op correct missent characters as long as the characters themselves are sent properly. The reason for this is that the receiving op doesn’t have to decipher the characters you sent, but can instead concentrate on the message you’re trying to get across.
Would you like to recognize an op with a good fist? Just add a comment below. Tnx & 73!
Mark Roddy K2MER says
What is the opposite of having a good fist? Having a ham fist. Compared to the professional operators of the day – the amateurs were ham fisted – or hams for short. The term was in use in the early 1900’s. If you were a bare knuckle fighter from Ireland, it was a compliment. It you were a pilot who repeatedly made lousy landings, it was not.
Thats my take on it anyway.