straight key

I may have goofed with CW a little

Last year I took a CWI course to help improve my CW — and it did. During the process I had a couple of code buddies and I got involved with straight key stuff — which was fun. However, I discovered a flaw in my thinking.

When I started with CW it was back in the 90’s. We had cassette tapes to listen to and to advance your license you had to pass a code test. I read somewhere that you should start with whatever sending device you plan on using. I chose paddles. I used the Ultimatic mode for a while but eventually settled on Iambic B. I became pretty proficient with squeeze keying. Most of of my CW career was with paddles. Over the past year I was not operating CW as much for different reasons and allowed myself to get a little rusty. I love the mode and thought it was time to get back into it.

The other day I got on the air to try a few POTA contacts. It was a bit of a mess. My brain had trouble wrapping around sideswiper cootie keying and squeeze keying. You can’t do both at once. I fumbled through a few contacts and then did some off line practice. I am getting it worked out. When I am in full practice I can send at close to 30 wpm and copy an exchange at about 25 or so. Conversational CW is a bit slower at 18 to 20 wpm.

Fortunately, I can train myself out of this. First I am going back to 100% Iambic B mode. Then it’s practice both offline and online. A few minutes warmup offline and a minimum of 5 CW contacts a day. My goal is to get myself really comfortable above 25 wpm. Life’s an adventure and is more so when we are having fun living it. 73 de Scott

Shack Shake up and a New Cootie Box

I’m still a little land-locked but as my wife continues to improve after her surgery, I will be able to get a away. That hasn’t stopped me from tinkering in the shack and playing radio. Today I graduated from CWI and I am now an Alumni. For those wishing to improve their CW Skills, I recommend attending CW Innvations https://cwinnovations.net

One of the things I did today was shake up the shack a little. I had the Elecraft K3 installed at the home QTH. As I looked at the radio, I realized that it looked and felt out of place. In reality it is the best field radio I have and with that in mind I pulled it off of the desk and put it in a travel box. I like to take this radio out for my local club events like Field Day, Winter Field Day and the Support Your Parks on the Air Weekends. In its place I moved one of my IC-7300’s to the desk. The 7300 is a very versatile radio capable at home or abroad. The 7300 compliments the IC-7610 as they operate in a similar fashion.

I also made another version of my Cootie Box using a DPST light switch and a 1/8″ TRS plug cable. It cost about $15 and 30 minutes of time. Parts are from amazon:
Stereo Cable
DPST Light Switch
No soldering required as the switch has screw down terminals. Here is a shematic:

I have a male end on one side and a female end on the other. I have some paddles with the cable attached so having the female end is for convenience. The cootie box is not much bigger than the cables I normally use.

Having a male/female end allows me to coil it up.

This Cootie Box is small enough to take anywhere and allows me to work straight key events without having to bring an extra key with me. The switches I bought come in two’s so I may make another one. 73 — Scott

Cootie Box

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:

Maybe It’s time for a change

I feel a shift in the winds. Maybe it’s time to chart a new course. I feel if I continue on the current heading, I will end up in the doldrums. Not a good place. Parks on the Air (POTA) using CW has become stale. There is more to CW than a contest-like exchange. I have also noticed that the pile-ups in POTA have become a little more unruly. When this happens, it can extend the pileup time to double or triple what it used to be. CW pileups work well when each station sends their call once and not two or three times. Couple multiple calls with tail-ending, and a pileup could go on from close to a minute. These multiple calls often QRM the activator so no one can hear him, causing him to repeat the call they have chosen. While there aren’t any fast rules, there is an art to working a pileup from either end and, adapting to the ebb and flow of the pileup is key.

So where am I today? I think I need to try something different, not real different, just not what I’m doing now. After 1,000+ POTA CW contacts, I think I got it. Activations are still a bit of a challenge, but, it’s still just an exchange. I am currently enrolled in a CWI course to help break out of my stagnation. I want to become more conversational with CW, much like I was years ago. But insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. This means I have to do something different than POTA, or SOTA for that matter.

My first step was to join the Straight Key Century Club (SKCC). SKCC does not allow any electronic means of sending CW. They allow 3 types of keys: straight key, sideswiper, and a bug. Yep, it takes a little more skill to run one of those babies. Twenty-eight plus years ago when I was a Tech+ I used Iambic Paddles and have used them since. I have another challenge, learn how to run a mechanical key. Couple that with learning to become more conversational should keep me busy for a while. I am also hoping that jumping backwards over the technological barrier, may be a place where things are a little less hectic.

I am looking at several different mechanical keys and when I get one (or more) they will show up here on the blog. Learning to use a mechanical key will be like learning a new musical instrument — how fun! I will still do POTA and SOTA, but I plan on opening new avenues to adventure. Hope to hear you out there. 73-Scott