The latest in keyers

I think of keyers as devices for keying in letters of the alphabet, or numbers. The simplest keyer is a pushbutton switch which you can press for a short time (a "dot"), or a long time (a "dash"), to key letters using a code, such as Morse code, at maybe 15 words per minute if you have some reasonable degree of experience. Then there are the iambic keyers, which have two buttons, one for dot, and the other for dash. You can key faster with these, since a computer can do the timing for you.

The term "iambic" means "one short syllable followed by one long syllable or of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable" (mweb dictionary), but when I first heard the term, I was too young to know what any of this meant.

So when I was first told about "iambic keyers", I didn't hear right, and I thought the person said "bi-ambic", so I inadvertently invented the term "uniambic keyer" to describe a single pushbutton keyer.

Now when I coined the word "uniambic", I did not mean "un-iambic" (as in not iambic), but, rather, I meant "uni-ambic", so I accidentally invented a kind of taxonomy of keyers as follows:

I was building a number of keyers, and some of my keyers, such as my "pentambic keyer" that I designed and built back in the 1970s, I typically attached to the handles of light sources, or other similar things, so that I could key while walking around, doing other things.

There are now many commercially available devices that can be used as keyers. These devices simply comprise a collection of pushbutton switches attached to some small object that you can hold onto, while walking around, etc.. I review two in this article and picture essay, both of which I consider to be "multiambic keyers".

I had a pretty broad definition of "keyer" as a device meant for use while walking around, as opposed to a keyboard which is primarily meant for use while seated. Thus the main difference between a keyer and a keyboard is that there is no "board" in keyer, e.g. it is not a boardlike object that must rest on a desk, or your lap.

I review what I believe to be the two best and most recent keyers in the process of commercial mass production. I believe that currently the best commercially manufactured one handed keyer is the Twiddler 2, while the best two handed keyer is the AlphaGrip. Both of these keyers are likely to soon be available on the market.

The Twiddler2 is a...
one hand keyer that...
leaves my other hand free to... key, while I climb a tree...
or open doors...
or enjoy
a walk around
outside while
keying in signs for www searches,
or for keying while walking up the stairs
to the library.

Since I wear my WWW server, fileserver, and Internet TV station, N1NLF-TV, I often document
the theft of souls,
or a bike ride
across campus.

No software!

The nicest thing about the Twiddler2 is that it is a keyer that plugs into a keyboard port. It is a keyer with...
standard ps/2...
connectors!!!

A keyer for all occasions

Twiddler2 is easy to type with, while...
running down stairs,
opening doors,
or using a key
to my office door, or
other keys to other
doors, to ENTER...
the world of cyberspace, while I'm living in the real world, the two being one in the same, and indistinguishable from one another, as if all of life were...

AlphaGrip: Two handed keyer

(In the two handed keyer category, my favorite is the alphagrip.)

...like a game console
for playing...
Flashgun Quake or LightPaintBall, shooting down the corridor, or painting the town red, or blue, depending on which team I am on today. With the AlphaGrip, I feel full of youthful energy, while still having a grip on the situation, as well as on my DEC Alpha I am remotely logged into while running down the hallway.

Sat Dec 2 20:21:29 EST 2000