Q Frank Caputo, WA2AAW, asks, “What is an iambic keyer or iambic keying?”
A An iambic keyer is an electronic keyer that can be operated by a set of two paddles. By convention, for a right-handed person, the right paddle (index finger) produces continuous dits when depressed and the left paddle (the thumb) produces continuous dahs. The iambic part comes into play when the paddles are squeezed together (both thumb and index finger). This causes the iambic keyer to produce an alternating dit-dah-dit-dah.
From Webster’s dictionary: i·amb (ìıàmb´, ìıàm´) noun A metrical foot consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable or a short syllable followed by a long syllable, as in delay.
From QST June 2000
