[QCWA] SideSwiper Techniques

[Joseph Fenn]

Gerry,
I used the homebrew sideswiper (aka cootiekey) from 1940 till about
1952.  It was made out of a hacksaw blade, with brass wraps around
the area that made contact with the 2 vertical bars and all mounted
on an old transformer base.  It was made for me by a WW1
Navy Vet still on active USCG in 1940 when I graduated frm High School.
No you did'nt do it the way you described. When you finished a letter
in one direction you just continued the next character in the opposite
direction of the swinging blade.  This in turn caused the DAHS
to some times be stretched out a bit too long and the dits would be
or attempt to be at proper duration at the speed your were sending
the code.   If you ended with a Dah on one side then the dits
followed with rapid back and forth swings of the fist.  In fact
many had what was known as "the lake eerie swing".   Even today
you can occsnly hear an new zealander or Aussie useing a cootie key.
In fact in Melbourne they made the only commercially built
sideswipers  (learned this from the internet).  To make things
even more weird, I was born lefthanded.  Did all my writing etc
with left hand but forced myself to use the right hand for all
cW work in Military, old cAA, and Airlines operations after WW2.
I also used an old Vibroplex original during the same time frames
right handed.
               Joe/KH6JF


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