Lake Erie Swing

[N6GND]

Thanks to David Ring for putting up the samples. I find the Lake Erie (Canal) swing perfectly readable. Additionally, I find David Ring on sideswiper not only perfectly readable but also a charming and delightful sound.

I'm one of those ops (learned the code in 1957 and was probably one of the last people to be given a Radiotelegraph Op MOS in the Marine Corps in 1964) who thinks that code can vary significantly from the ideal and still communicate very precisely.

I do enjoy hearing it when it has style. On the other hand, the hyper-mangled stuff I hear at times is quite off-putting, enough to keep me from answering a CQ. There must be ops out there who are in a hurry to use code who don't take the time to listen to it enough to understand fully what good sending is--in all its variations.

[PA0BLAH]

I find the Lake Erie (Canal) swing perfectly readable.

I believe you, I didn't find it perfectly readable. What is your comment on my comment that I posted here:

This lake Erie guy starts with dahdahditditdah unknown character.
The first two dashes are half the length of the fourth one.

Is that next  dit daaahdidi dit meant as ede or as le ?

Most likely he starts with 'mule metn'

that next dahdah di dah  dahdit is that metn or ttetn or qn?

I think that it is quite wrong to deviate deliberately from International Morse timing as teached in a course, especially in a way that, when demonstrated in the final school test in order to get a professional certificate, it should lead to failing the transmission test.

When we are coming in a situation that a guy is some God and permits himself to sent distorted text, in order to give himself a badge of distinction, we are surely on the wrong track.

Morse is/was a means of communication; in order to do that under severe bad signal conditions you have to meet the utmost of the ideal timing, in order to make the possibility of recognising the sigs the highest possible.

In your head you have a number of templates, and recognising a character or word is finding the best fit with an ideal template, when there is already a severe distortion in the original sending, the change is minimized to recognise the sigs in bad S/N ratio circumstances with QRM and QRN added.

So when we want to promote Morse code in ham society, we don't need guys with (and obviously needing) that kind of distinction badges in order to gain interest in learning the code. 

I can imagine generating that kind of code, and the gang is first asking after listening: "Who was the opr?" When they get the answer W0BMU they said: "Fabulous, what a fist what a style, no problem to copy" And when the answer is PA0BLAH or somebody else that is low in the chicken picking order, the answer:
"Terrific, that hyper-mangled stuff you presented here  is quite off-putting, enough to keep me from answering a guy sending that kind of mangled code"

So ...

Bob

[N6GND]

Bob said:

"In your head you have a number of templates, and recognising a character or word is finding the best fit with an ideal template, when there is already a severe distortion in the original sending, the change is minimized to recognise the sigs in bad S/N ratio circumstances with QRM and QRN added.

"So when we want to promote Morse code in ham society, we don't need guys with (and obviously needing) that kind of distinction badges in order to gain interest in learning the code.

"I can imagine generating that kind of code, and the gang is first asking after listening: "Who was the opr?" When they get the answer W0BMU they said: "Fabulous, what a fist what a style, no problem to copy" And when the answer is PA0BLAH or somebody else that is low in the chicken picking order, the answer:
"Terrific, that hyper-mangled stuff you presented here  is quite off-putting, enough to keep me from answering a guy sending that kind of mangled code""

This is exactly the situation with any sort of human expression. Painting or music. Or writing. Abstract art makes no sense at all to some people because they cannot see the familiar shapes. Jazz musicians, and those who listen to them, enjoy improvisation on themes. Some people can still hear the familiar elements of melody, harmony, rhythm of the original tune in the improvisation. Others cannot hear these and they will insist that the original music is "lost." I can read Bob's posts and get what I take to be most of their sense even though he toots along on a very personal version of English.