Folks, if ever there was a neat little project for the beginning ham operator or the
seasoned amateur radio operator, this is it. I’m talking about Small Wonder Labs
little dynamo, the RockMite QRP CW Transceiver.
The Rock-Mite is a crystal-controlled direct-conversion, QRP transceiver available
for 80M, 40M, 30M or 20M. It features an on-board 8-pin PIC microcontroller
which controls a T-R offset on key-down. A brief tap of a pushbutton control
switch reverses the offset to yield a second operating frequency. Pushing and
holding on the pushbutton activates the speed adjustment routine for the built-in
Iambic keyer. If you'd rather use an external keyer or straight key, there's a 'drop-
through' mode which allows use of an external keying source.
Some may ask”Why a RockMite?” Well as a home-schooling dad of two wonderful
children, I thought it would be great if they could build a radio that would give
them a tremendous sense of accomplishment upon completion and at the same
time teach them something about the wonderful world of electronics. Add to
that, it rewards them with a transceiver that they can use anywhere they go, plus
the journey they could experience through modification of their little radio.
Ansel, KJ4ZRU, the newest ham in the family, not only built his own RockMite as a
first homebrew project, attesting to its ease of construction, but has actually
begun to see the possibilities electronics have in his future endeavors. It has truly
created a win-win situation.
For those like myself with limited electronics experience, it has proven to be a
tremendous learning experience and has put the “giddy-up” in my wanting to
learn more, so as to have a better understanding of radio electronics and
electronic components.
In closing, I hope more LARC members will follow my lead and get Rockbound
with this dynamite little radio. Who knows, maybe we can someday soon have a
RockMite weekly net and we can all get in on the fun.
For more information on the RockMite and what can been done with it please
visit:
http://smallwonderlabs.com/ and http://www.qsl.net/n0rc/rm/
Ren Monllor KG4BAS
QRP ARCI #14308
NAQCC #4880
Ansel’s (KJ4ZRU) 40 M RockMite ready to QSO; a neat little package.
Ren’s (KG4BAS) Dual bander 40M-20M RockMite, ready to QSO.
Ansels handiwork.
Notice that there are two crystals and one surface mount IC chip on the upper right hand corner.
BTW, I belong to the RockMite Group on Yahoo and two of the neatest mods I’ve seen so far are:
Pieces of SIP sockets for the crystals and final transistor enabling higer output powers and different frequencies, and the use of wire and paper clips to ground the different crystals without have to solder the crystal cases to ground.
