Straight keys, paddles and bugs

What it is

A key is the switch that turns your carrier on and off. All of them do the same job; they differ in who makes the timing: your hand, a mechanical pendulum, or an electronic keyer.

Key	Who times the dits and dahs	Notes
Straight key	you, for every element	A simple up and down lever. Rugged, and good for learning because you feel each element.
Bug (semi-automatic key)	a swinging weight makes the dits; you make the dahs	Push one way and a pendulum vibrates, producing a string of evenly timed dits. Dahs are still sent by hand.
Paddles with a keyer	the keyer	Touch a paddle and the electronics send a perfectly timed element.

Every individual hand has its own rhythm, called a fist. Operators can often recognise a friend's sending.

Paddles and keyers

A paddle does not make the signal itself. It tells a keyer, a small circuit in the radio or a separate box, to generate an element. The keyer makes every dit exactly one unit long and every dah exactly three, with correct gaps, at the speed you set. Your hand supplies only the order.

• Single paddle (one lever): push one way for dits, the other for dahs. Simple and common on portable keys.
• Dual paddle (two levers, one for dits and one for dahs): pressing both at once, a squeeze, makes the keyer alternate dit, dah, dit, dah. This is called iambic keying and lets you make letters whose elements alternate, such as C, K and R, with a single squeeze instead of separate taps.

Iambic A and B

The two iambic modes differ in what happens when you let go during a squeeze.

Mode A stops when the element you are on finishes. Mode B finishes that element and then sends one more, of the opposite kind. Mode B therefore lets you release a little early; it feels natural to many operators who learned on it, while mode A does exactly what the paddles say. Neither is correct; choose the one whose timing suits your hands, and practise with it. Many radios offer both.

In practice

• Set the key's contact spacing and tension to feel right; too light invites double dits.
• Radios and computers can also send stored messages such as a CQ call, which operators use heavily in contests; see CW contesting and the Reverse Beacon Network.
• For sending speed in WPM and the unit timing the keyer uses, see The Morse alphabet and timing.

Related

• The Morse alphabet and timingDits, dahs and spacing.
• Learning Morse codeKoch, Farnsworth and daily practice.
• CW procedure and prosignsCalling, QSOs and signing off in Morse.
• What CW is and why it enduresA narrow, efficient mode that gets through.
• CW contesting and the Reverse Beacon NetworkFast exchanges and automated decoding.