One you need to learn to send but now is far, far, far too soon.
As you asked Iambic keying is squeeze keying. You are familiar with a normal Morse key, press it, close the contacts and normally the radio switches from RX to TX almost immediately and starts to send a continuous signal (continuous wave). Let go of the key and one of two things happens. If the radio is full break-in it immediately switches to RX and if it is semi-break-in it stays in TX for short period but not sending and then reverts to RX. If you press the key in this not sending state then it will start sending again until you let go.
Full break in allows you to hear what is on your RX frequency in the gaps between you dits and dahs. My head explodes when I try to do this! Semi-break in allows you to send a series of dits and dahs without the radio switching from TX. You can adjust this delay to a value you like.
Apart from the types of break in, you will probably be fully aware of this. A paddle has either 1 or 2 side swiping switches and normally now has an electronic keyer controlled by the paddle switches. The purpose of the keyer is to make all the dits and dahs the same relative lengths now matter how ham fisted you are at pressing the paddles unlike a normal key where you have to control the up / down motion to make the dits and dahs and try and send constant and consistent characters.
A single paddle has a dot and dash set of contacts. Press it one way and the dot contact closes, the key sees the switch closed and sends a stream of perfectly timed dits and inter-dit spaces until you let go when a spring opens the contacts. Press it the other way and you send perfect dashes and inter-dash spaces. A speed control alters how fast the dits and dahs are sent. You waggle the paddle left and right and you get perfectly spaced characters. All you have to time in your head is the inter-character gap etc.
A dula paddle is Iambic which is Greek for squeeze. You have one paddle for dots and one for dashes. Press one and you get dits, press the other you get dahs. If you squeeze and press both together you get a stream of di-dah-di-dah-di-dahs until you let go. If you squeeze the dash fractionally before the dot paddle and hold long enough you get dah-di-dah-dit. Hold it too long and dah-dit repeats one too many. Likewise dit before dah sends dit-dah (and repeats).
So you can send with fewer motions by pressing the dit or dah or squeezing both. To send my call MM0FMF/P I can
- For M press and hold dash to get dah-dah
- For M release and press and hold dash to get dah-dah
- For 0 release and press and hold long to get dah-dah-dah-dah-dah
- For F release and press and hold dot and when second dot starts squeeze dash at same time then release both for di-di-dah-dit.
- For M press and hold dash to get dah-dah
- For F release and press and hold dot and when second dot starts squeeze dash at same time then release both for di-di-dah-dit.
- For / press dash release and press dot and hold when second dot starts squeeze dash as well then release both for dah-di-di-dah-dit
- For P press dot release press dash hold then release then press dot and release for di-dah-dah-dit.
Sounds hard but is easy with a bit of practice. I can never remember the Mode A or B rules that David wrote about. But the above is how my keyer is set up.
Now you know, forget all of that. You don’t need to consider sending for some time. Not until you know the alphabet/numbers and few punctuation chars forwards, backwards, upside down and inside out. Then and only then should you even consider sending. From personal experience and many others if you start to soon you will pickup all sorts of bad habits and traits.
Yes, you have to learn to send. But not yet. Capish?
A Navy Flameproof is a fine key, and pretty small,
It gets easier once you have enough to muddle through some plaintext and QSO format exchanges.
