[CQ-Contest] Foot switches

[Dale L Martin]

>
> Hi all,
>
> I noted with interest Richard's query about the FS2 footswitch and Dale's
> piano man solution. Interesting.
>
> I noticed the FS2 has the hinge at the heel. Although it seems to make
> sense, it's always seemed more fatiguing to my legs to have the switch in
> that position than to simply use my toes since the other way
> requires moving
> muscles all the way up to the knee.
>
> Has anyone ever experimented with non-footswitch, non-VOX
> alternatives? As a
> touch typist, the heel of my hand never strays too far from the
> keyboard but
> like Dale, I've been frustrated by having to reposition the footswitch in
> the middle of a run.
>

Kelly, that is the downside to doing footswitches that way with the hinge on
the 'near side'. I don't think it would take much to turn the footswitch
around, attach a piece of wood to the 'armature' piece such that it was just
off the floor and thereby relieve your feet of having to have the toes well
elevated when not transmitting.

I have heard of someone who was using a desk with the normal legwell (??
you know, where your knees/legs/feet extend under the desktop, but the sides
are close in to your legs due to drawers, etc.).  He had rigged a couple of
homebrew 'footswitches' to mount on the inside sides of the legwell so that
he could use his left or right knee against the appropriate side to key the
radio.  It didn't take much in the way of movement or pressure to activate
the switch.   Sounded pretty neat to me, since your knees are almost always
at the same height and about the same depth into the legwell throughout most
of the contest....and you're not doing much with them anyway.

73,
dale, kg5u