On the CWOps mailing list the other day, one of the guys apologized for his bad “fist.” A CW operator’s fist is his or her method of sending. Someone is said to have a good fist if his or her sending is easily readable. Someone is said to have a bad fist if he or she is sending poorly.
The fellow who apologized wrote:
I want to apologize about my bad fist yesterday. Yesterday morning, I used my1949 Allis Chalmers tractor, which is 70 yrs old and has NO POWER STEERING to bush hog some of my 13 acre plot. My arms and hand muscles were cramping and shaking for the rest of the day! This was the first mow this spring and I am outta shape for that kind of work. I’m only in my early 60’s too. Thanks for putting up with that and all the contacts!
That got the folks to start talking about bad fists in general. One guy commented:
Remember CO2BB? Talk about a banana boat swing … :-)
A “swing” is a distinctive method of sending using a semi-automatic key or “bug.” The swing refers to the difference in length between the dits and the dahs. To this, another replied:
Now that is a blast from the past. I only worked Bruno twice, both times in early 1966 on 40m CW. At that point, I was a 16-year old impressionable new ham who had only been licensed for 2 years.
Finally, a third person chimed in:
There seems to be interest in an after-market unit that would produce chirp, buzz, etc. options that could be selected and added to an otherwise clean CW signal. Once in the late 60’s I was present when someone altered the tone on a code practice oscillator and injected the audio into the phone patch audio of an 32S3. The resulting transmitter output made it easy to bust a DX pileup. Modern digital techniques should make it easier to produce a wide variety of output choices. Just a thought.
I kind of like this idea. While I’m a big proponent of using a paddle and a keyer, I do recognize that the code sent this way can be impersonal. A device that could personalize one’s fist, even when using a paddle and electronic keyer, could be a decent seller. It could have several pre-programmed fists, such as the Lake Erie swing, as well as the South American swing. It could even insert some extra dots randomly, as some operators are wont to do when using a bug or a paddle.
What do you think? Should we petition Elecraft, or maybe FlexRadio, to add this to their feature set?
I don’t recommend using technology to mess up your code. Swing is a characteristic distortion that each person develops, and always a deviation from the ideal code.
I remember an op on a coastal tanker in Alaska, whom we all recognized by his unique fist, but it never hindered our ability to read his code. When I sent out weather by hand, another op commended me on my clear code, which I made sound as much as possible like an automatic keyer. I’m just saying, clean code is the ideal, swing is a charming defect.
Using technology to distort your code is like wearing a purple tuxedo to dinner. It gets attention, but it’s far from ideal.
Kind of reminds me of the CB ops that use echo and reverb circuits to sound somehow ‘big’.
I wouldn’t recommend it. Too easy for the bands to erupt in messy-sounding signals, and the FCC might object to what would be modulated CW, instead of just CW, in HF band segments where modulated CW would not be best practice, or possibly even illegal.
Don’t let anyone rain on your parade. If you enjoy it, and it does not hurt the hobby, then why not?