Chickadee Touch

All About the Touch

The Chickadee Touch is an ultra-lightweight, compact capacitive-touch iambic Morse code paddle designed for amateur radio operators who want a fast and responsive paddle with no moving keying components.

Unlike the Chickadee Tap and DoubleTap, which use mechanical keyboard switches, the Touch detects your fingers electronically using capacitive touch sensors. Touch one paddle for a dit and the other for a dah. There are no switches to press, contacts to adjust, or mechanical paddles to move.

The Chickadee Touch is based on the capacitive touch keyer project created by M0UKD. Our version builds upon that concept with a compact PCB and enclosure designed for portable operation, along with additional features including power isolation and ESD protection.

The result is an incredibly small and lightweight iambic paddle that's particularly well suited for POTA, SOTA, QRP, field operations, portable stations, CW practice, or anyone who wants a compact touch paddle that takes up very little desk space.

How the Chickadee Touch Works

The Chickadee Touch doesn't use mechanical switches. Instead, each paddle acts as a capacitive touch sensor. The electronics monitor the capacitance of the touch surfaces and detect the change that occurs when your finger makes contact with them.

Touch the dit side:

Dit Sensor Activated → Radio Keyer Generates Dits

Touch the dah side:

Dah Sensor Activated → Radio Keyer Generates Dahs

Touch both:

Both Sensors Activated → Radio Keyer Handles Iambic Operation

There is virtually no physical movement required. Your finger simply makes contact with the appropriate touch surface. Just like the Chickadee DoubleTap, it provides separate dit and dah signals to the electronic keyer in your radio.

Your radio determines, or uses the settings you configured for, the actual timing and speed of the Morse code.

Capacitive Touch Design

Capacitive sensing works by detecting changes in an electrical field rather than waiting for two physical electrical contacts to close. Your body has electrical capacitance. When your finger comes into contact with one of the Chickadee Touch's sensing surfaces, it changes the capacitance detected by the touch-sensing electronics.

That change is interpreted as a paddle activation. This allows the Chickadee Touch to operate without a traditional mechanical switch or paddle mechanism.

There are:

• No paddle contacts to adjust

• No switch travel

• No springs controlling paddle resistance

• No mechanical actuation point

• No keying mechanism to bottom out

Simply touch the paddle and send.

A Different Keying Experience

The Chickadee Touch feels very different from both a traditional paddle and the Chickadee DoubleTap. With a mechanical paddle, your fingers must physically move the paddles or switches far enough to reach their actuation point. With the Touch, contact is the actuation point. This means very little finger movement is necessary when sending CW.

For operators accustomed to mechanical paddles, there may be an adjustment period. It's very easy initially to leave a finger resting against one of the touch surfaces or accidentally activate a paddle while repositioning your hand. Start at a comfortable CW speed and give yourself some time to develop a feel for the touch interface. Just keep in mind, most gloves will not work with the Touch pads unless they pass through your body's capacitance.

Once you're accustomed to it, very small finger movements can be used to send CW.

Iambic Paddle Operation

The Chickadee Touch is an iambic paddle, not a straight key.

It provides two independent outputs:

Dit

Dah

These outputs connect to the electronic keyer in your radio.

Holding the dit sensor causes the radio's keyer to generate repeating dits, while holding the dah sensor generates repeating dahs. When using an appropriate iambic keyer mode, touching both sensors allows the keyer to alternate between dits and dahs. Because the radio generates the actual Morse code elements, the Chickadee Touch requires a radio or external device with a compatible electronic keyer.

Depending on your radio, look for settings such as:

• Paddle

• Electronic Keyer

• Iambic

• Iambic A

• Iambic B

Your radio may also provide settings for keyer speed, weighting, paddle polarity, and other CW options. Refer to your radio's documentation for the appropriate configuration.

Iambic A vs. Iambic B

The Chickadee Touch can be used with radios supporting common iambic keying modes. You may see your radio provide options for Iambic Mode A and Iambic Mode B.

Both allow the operator to activate the dit and dah paddles together and use "squeeze keying." The difference between the modes relates primarily to what the electronic keyer does when the paddles are released during an element.

The Chickadee Touch itself does not determine the iambic mode. Your radio's electronic keyer controls this behavior. If you're new to iambic operation, try both modes and use whichever feels most natural.

Why Does the Chickadee Touch Need Power?

Unlike the Chickadee Tap and DoubleTap, the Touch contains active electronics. The capacitive sensors must continuously monitor the touch surfaces to determine whether a finger is present. Because of this, the Chickadee Touch requires an external power source to operate. Without power, the capacitive touch circuitry cannot detect a dit or dah input properly and instead will pass phantom presses to your radio. So we recommend turning your touch ON prior to connecting to your radio. This way the touch IC's are stable and ready for signals. This will prevent unwanted transmission.

This is an important distinction within the Chickadee family:

Tap → Passive

DoubleTap → Passive

Touch → Active

The additional electronics are what make touch operation possible. It's powered by a single, and replaceable, CR2032 battery.

Power Isolation

Because the Chickadee Touch contains powered electronics while also connecting to the keying input of your radio, we wanted to provide additional separation between those two sides of the design. The Chickadee Touch therefore incorporates electrical isolation between the active touch-sensing circuitry and the radio keying interface.

Rather than directly tying the powered touch electronics into the radio's keying circuit, the isolation stage allows the touch circuitry to control the dit and dah outputs while maintaining separation between the two systems.

This is particularly useful in a portable accessory where the key may be connected to different radios and different power sources throughout its life. It also means the radio's keying interface isn't being used to power the Touch electronics.

ESD Protection

Capacitive touch paddles present an interesting design challenge: they're specifically designed to be touched. That makes electrostatic discharge, or ESD, an important consideration.

Static electricity can build up on your body and discharge when you touch an electronic device. This is particularly relevant for exposed touch surfaces connected to sensitive capacitive-sensing electronics.

For that reason, the Chickadee Touch incorporates ESD protection into the design to help protect sensitive circuitry from electrostatic discharge during normal handling and operation. This becomes especially valuable for a portable device that may regularly be:

• Handled

• Packed and unpacked

• Connected and disconnected

• Used outdoors

• Operated in dry environments

• Transported with other radio equipment

The combination of power isolation and ESD protection adds another layer of protection to a design intended to spend its life both at the radio desk and out in the field.

Connecting the Chickadee Touch

The Chickadee Touch connects to the CW paddle/key input of a compatible amateur radio.

An iambic paddle connection typically consists of:

Dit

Dah

Common/Ground

Because different radios may use different connectors and pin assignments, always verify the CW paddle pinout and keying requirements for your specific radio before connecting the Chickadee Touch.

In order for the Touch to properly operate it's capacitive-sensing electronics it has an onboard, and replaceable CR2032 battery.

Always verify the appropriate connections before powering or connecting the paddle to your radio.

Designed for Portable Operation

The Chickadee Touch was designed with portable amateur radio in mind.

Traditional paddles can provide an excellent operating experience, but their mechanical assemblies and heavy bases can add unnecessary weight when you're carrying your entire station in a backpack. The capacitive design eliminates the need for much of that mechanical hardware.

The result is a paddle that provides full dit and dah control in an exceptionally small and lightweight package.

It's a great fit for:

• POTA — Parks on the Air

• SOTA — Summits on the Air

• QRP operation

• Backpack radio kits

• Field operations

• Emergency radio kits

• Travel stations

• CW practice

• Compact home stations

Throw it into your radio bag and it's ready for your next activation.

Getting Comfortable with the Touch

If you've spent years using a traditional mechanical paddle, don't expect the Chickadee Touch to feel exactly the same. That's intentional. There is no physical resistance or mechanical movement telling your fingers when the paddle has activated. Instead, you'll use the radio's sidetone and your own finger contact as feedback.

When first getting started:

1. Set your radio to a comfortable CW speed.

2. Position your fingers near the touch surfaces without resting directly against them.

3. Use a light touch to activate each paddle.

4. Practice individual dits and dahs.

5. Practice characters you're already comfortable sending.

6. Gradually increase your speed as you become accustomed to the touch interface.

You may be surprised by how little movement is required.

Tap vs. DoubleTap vs. Touch

The Chickadee Touch is the electronic member of the Chickadee family.

	Tap	DoubleTap	Touch
Key Type	Straight Key	Iambic Paddle	Iambic Paddle
Input	Mechanical	Mechanical	Capacitive Touch
Dit/Dah Controls	Single	Separate	Separate
Electronic Keyer Required	No	Yes	Yes
External Power	No	No	Yes
Moving Key Components	Yes	Yes	No

Choose the Tap if you want a traditional straight-key experience in the smallest and simplest package.

Choose the DoubleTap if you want an iambic paddle with the physical and tactile feedback of mechanical keyboard switches.

Choose the Touch if you want an ultra-lightweight iambic paddle with virtually no finger movement and no moving keying components.

Based on the M0UKD Touch Keyer

The Chickadee Touch wouldn't exist without the work of M0UKD and his original capacitive touch keyer project.

That project provided the foundation and inspiration for the Chickadee Touch. Our goal was to take that concept and develop our own compact implementation around the needs of portable amateur radio operation, including the additional isolation and protection incorporated into our design.

We encourage anyone interested in the electronics behind capacitive CW paddles to check out M0UKD's original project as well.

73 and happy keying!