[QCWA] SideSwiper Techniques

[Norm Gertz]

Not everyone could master the sideswiper......some of the results were quite 
unbelievable with uneven rhythms and dots and dashes of varying length.
It took a lot of skill to be proficient with it.
I remember an old friend who was a Great Lakes ships radio officer and 
checked in on one of our nets.  After exchanging info with him I was asked 
by another station if I really copied what he was sending......it wasnt 
easy.
Properly used the operators with the correct swing could produce some 
beautiful ""musical" code.
Even though I did make a key up as Joe describes when I was a youngster I 
never did get to master it and ended up with an old Vibroplex sold to me by 
a Western Union operator for $5 in 1937.

73   Norm   K1AA
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gerry Skinner" <k4lvz at cfl.rr.com>
To: "Discussion of QCWA" <qcwa at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Saturday, September 10, 2005 9:33 AM
Subject: Re: [QCWA] SideSwiper Techniques


> Joe:  Wow!  Thanks!! 73
> Gerry, K4LVZ
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: Joseph Fenn <jfenn at lava.net>
> To: Discussion of QCWA <qcwa at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Friday, September 09, 2005 6:19 PM
> Subject: Re: [QCWA] SideSwiper Techniques
>
>
>> 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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