[WT-support] Question about CW weight

Tom W8JI w8ji at w8ji.com
Fri Dec 12 10:03:04 CET 2008


Thanks for the reply Bob,

> Are you asking for what is called "K factor" or "keying 
> compensation", where
> a fixed value, say, 9 ms, is added to every dot or dash, 
> regardless of
> keying speed?  It would be nice if Win-Test would support 
> that for LPT port
> keying, but it doesn't.

No, I am asking for weight. Not compensation.

If you add fixed time the weight increases as you increase 
speed. That might make up for a slow start time in a rig, 
but in a normal rig it is not what we want.

What I want is a real weight control that increase the 
percentage of time the elements are on compared to a single 
off space. Say the normal dot to space ratio is 1:1 or 50% 
weight. I want to increase that to perhaps 60% on time to 
make the CW heavier. It would have the same 10% increase in 
dash time. Every off time unit, which would have been a dot 
length, is now of course the correct proportion slower.

It has been this way since time began with keyers and weight 
controls, except for the few exceptions that have errors 
where the designer thought weight was ratio.

To convert with an analog circuit I would have to change to 
a triangle waveform and move the on-off threshold point up 
and down. As a matter of fact that is how I did it in the 
vacuum tube keyer I made in 1966.  :-)

Doesn't win-test have a weight control, or does it only have 
a ratio control that is mislabeled as weight??

73 Tom




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