Side-swiping With a Cootie Key

Paul WI5F posted the following today to the SolidCpyCW mailing list:

I just recently discovered “cootie” keys. I was about to get active again and on my favorite mode, c.w., after several years of lay off. I had no straight key, haven’t had one in twenty years. What I do have is a dual paddle and keyer, but I also wanted to send code manually. So I was searching the web and discovered “cootie” keys in the article, “The Art of Side-Swipery” by Jerry L. Bartachek KDØCA on the Morse Express web site—and boy am I glad I did. If you send code manually and haven’t tried a “cootie”, you should….it is great!

Start by reading the above article. Any dual paddle can be configured as a “cootie” by shorting together the two posts that are normally used separately for dits and dahs and by using a mono cable direct to your radio c.w. key input instead of using a stereo cable to a keyer. If you are using a dual paddle already this will allow you to try ‘side swipery’ with no investment and using a paddle that you are already accustomed to.

Reading the article was interesting. I always thought that sideswiping meant simply that you connected the two contacts of a single-lever paddle in parallel, and that just like you’d do with a bug, make the dahs with your index finger and the dits with your thumb.

Instead, you make dits or dahs with either finger, depending on the sequence. You always make the odd elements with the index finger and the even elements with the thumb.

For example, “K” is sent: dah (index) di (thumb) dah (index). “R” is sent: di (index) dah (thumb) dit (index).

Interesting, no? I have a Vibroplex single lever paddle, and I might just try this sometime.