CW ops = good musicians (or vice-versa)?

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BHO NET Radio Amateurs "hams" bearing banjos

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Licensed amateur radio operators ("hams") who also play banjo. Or banjo players ("banjo players") who are also hams.

9 Members, Created 10/19/2016 -

Administrators: Rawhide Creek (owner)

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From Rawhide Creek on 10/30/2016 4:16:03 PM

I'm sure some or all of you have heard, at one time or another, that musicians make better CW ops or, conversely, that CW ops tend to be musicians.

I've heard this more than once over the decades, including from a professional guitarist who was a communications op in the Coast Guard during the Viet Nam era. He told me that they screened for people with musical aptitude to become radio operators.

He also told me that some of them were able to be taught to copy RTTY (800 Hz FSK) by ear. I didn't believe him, so brought him over to the shack and tuned in some 40-meter RTTY. He copied it! (This was early/mid-1980s.)

So . . . what do you think?

5 Comments
	wb4h says: 10/31/2016 4:27:06 PM There's one op I've heard on 40 that sends so musical he is hard to copy JMHO
	Rawhide Creek says: 11/9/2016 4:34:19 PM Too much "swing" in his fist?
	Boerne Picker says: 11/29/2016 7:23:38 AM Copy RTTY by ear? Wow, maybe at the slowest baud rate. I started with Morse Code as a kid, then got very into music in high school. Must be a connection. I can still whip out ~25 wpm using a keyer, and usually end up running one of the CW stations during our club's Field Day operation. I always heard code referred to as "ditty dum dum ditty" - sounds like a banjo roll in 4/4 time. de N7RF
	Rawhide Creek says: 12/1/2016 11:01:26 AM He copied 45 baud RTTY, which is equivalent to 60wpm. I tried paddles and a keyer a few times, but the "self-completing" aspect for some reason made me a little crazy. I went back to my trusty Vibroplex. I've pushed it to 40wpm but I'm happiest around 25-30. Every now and again, I'll pull out a straight key, just for grins, to remind me how much work it is to send 13-15wpm that way.
	Sleepyhead2011 says: 4/6/2017 12:57:45 PM Yeah I can see that. Although i'm QRT at the moment I'm pretty much a CW-only operator when I'm active. I trained as a merchant marine operator in the late 80's and spent about 6 years as a shipboard R/O. Morse is music there's no doubt about it and having used straight keys, bugs and paddles, I've since gone back to straight keys exclusively because it's so much more satisfying in a musical sense.
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