Sometimes you got to go both ways. I recently decided I wanted to do more straight key stuff and I setteled on a sideswiper as my weapon of choice. However, I am still much more proficient with a set of paddles. Often when I go to the field for activities such as Field Day (both) or POTA/SOTA I use paddles. Now that I’m gearing up for the Straight Key Century Club (SKCC), I want to have the opprtunity to make SKCC contacts also. I do own one sideswiper key from KN5YB, Tom makes nice keys and I like the one I got from him very much. I did realize that the feel between a sideswiper and paddles is very close and since I have some nice paddles, why not make them work like straight keys.
To make a paddle into a sideswiper all that is needed is to short the Dit and Dah contacts together. This can be done with a jumper or my cootie cable https://kk4z.com/2024/01/26/cootie-cable/. While these work, I wanted something a little easier to switch back and forth so I came up with the Cootie Box. Inside is the cootie that makes the magic.
The circuit is very simple.
It only takes a few parts.
These can be found on Amazon:
Project Box
3.5mm Stereo Jacks
20 ga Wire
Note: 20 ga was far too big. 24 or 26 ga. would be better
SPST Switch
I also used solder and some heat shrink I had on hand.
I connect 5 wires on one of the jacks 2 for the Dit and 2 for the Dah contacts. One of each goes to the other jack and one of each goes to the switch. The fifth wire is the common. Since I had wire that was too big, after I cut away the insulation on the Dit and Dah contact wire, I separated the strands into two groups. I then cut the insulation off of the wires that goes to the switch and attached them to the contact wires.
I soldered the two wires together and then trimmed them before I attached the other tail to the jack. I used heat shrink to insulate the connections
Before you go any further, feed the one jack you finished soldering through the project box and thread one nut with all five wires and fasten the jack to the project box. Then thread the nut to the other jack with the three wire that go to the opposite jack. Do not thread the switch wires through the second nut. Pass the wires through the hole in the project box and solder them to the opposite jack making sure you have the Dit and Dah contacts wired correctly or they will be reversed (trust me on this one).
With the switch wired and soldered it should look like this.
Wire and solder the oppsite jack, put together, label the switch and Viola! Cootie Box.
It does not matter which end of the Cootie box is plugged into what – completely reversable. One thing I like about the box over the cable is I feel the box is more durable.
Here is a short video of the Cootie Box in action:
kk4z.com 