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Why is the iambic keyer so strange??

Richard980
Richard980 Member ✭
in FLEX-8000 Signature Series

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Answers

  • Richard980
    Richard980 Member ✭
    I am not sure what happened to the text of this post? In any case, I've been using electronic memory keyers for over 40 years and yet I find the keyer in my new 8400m completely unusable in both mode A and B. After several hours of adjusting my Bencher and practicing I can't even send CQ followed by my call without errors. Usually I can tame a new keyer in a couple minutes. I've kind of resigned to going to ebay to find a standalone keyer. Have others had this experience?
  • KD0RC
    KD0RC Member, Super Elmer Moderator

    Hi Richard, To me, the internal keyer feels exactly like the keyer in my homebrew TeensyMaestro. I haven't seen any other posts about this, so I don't think it is a common issue.

    On the off chance that the radio is experiencing an issue, you might want to export your profiles and do a factory reset. If that doesn't change anything, then it may just be the way Flex implemented the keyer compared to what you are used to.

  • Tom C
    Tom C Member ✭✭

    Hello Richard, I use the keyer every day and never had an issue. It is as goos as my Winkeyer was so the Flex is all I use.

    Tom

    N9RU

  • K3EL
    K3EL Member ✭
    Hi Richard - I agree, the keyer on the 6600 / 8600 is very disappointing. Ok for a quick qso, but I much prefer an external keyer for conversational cw. I've found that cleaning the key contacts can help. Adding an external de-bouncing circuit is on my "might get round to it one day" list.

    Dave K3EL
  • Richard980
    Richard980 Member ✭
    By way of reporting back, I did some experimenting this morning. I fired up my old radio, an Icom 756ProIII which I've been using the last 20 years and compared its non iambic keyer to the 8400's.

    I found that the buffering for a given character in the Icom keyer allows one to paddle somewhat faster than the output speed of the keyer thereby allowing the operator to focus more on spacing between characters and not having to think about spacing between individual elements of a character. On the 8400 keyer paddle timing between individual character elements is critical to form a correct character... Not to mention that mode B thing of adding an element in.

    Given that I was trained on electronic memory keyers long before there were iambic keyers, it going to be a heavy lift for my brain to make the switch. I am thinking I just may switch to using a keyboard for keying.

    Thanks all for your input.

    Rich WA6VOG
  • Mike-VA3MW
    Mike-VA3MW Administrator, FlexRadio Employee, Community Manager, Super Elmer, Moderator admin

    @k3el - Thanks for the input, however, you really are not telling us anything that we call actionable. Can you take a moment and elaborate on your findings please.

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