Welcome to DJ 0 MY ' s - QRP Page !

ROCKMITE 14 MHz, 2-Channel, QRPp TRX with included CW-Keyer:

Surfing through QRP pages on the internet I was atracted by a new kit sold by Smallwonderlabs in USA. I immediately ordered the kit in USA and due to a lot of orders at this company I had to be patient a few weeks to receive my kit (fortunately you can see the order status on their web site so you always know where you currently are in the queue). This is how the envelope looked like when it arrived here in my QTH - the Fishermans Friend tin was already waiting (I bought it already several months before, because I was planning to use it for "any" tiny QRPp project):

Then I started to build the kit itself.which took about 3 evenings (you can do it without experience in about 3-4 hours I guess - experienced homebrewers will be much faster, of course). Every evening I did a few parts for about one hour to keep the XYL calm, hi hi !!! Here is the kit before and after PCB assembly:

You can see the completed PCB (I didn't take pictures of the partially finished PCB, sorry !). The Jacks, Switch and Fishermans Friend tin ready for the mechanical work (which is a bit tricky because of the very thin metal material ).

Finaly I made it and the jacks and switch are mounted in the "box":

Now I used a self invented trick to drill the supporting holes for the PCB accurately in the right place. I made a photocopy of the PCB (be careful....some copy machines do not copy exactly 1:1 !!!!! I had to go to a second machine which really was resulting 1:1). This paper-copy is sticked with double sided scotch tape to the bottom of the Fishermans Friend tin at the right location. The right location is easy to find if you have the jacks already mounted in the box (as in the picture above). Then I used the copy as a drilling template, which resulted in accurate driling without any need for taking meassurements, etc. I kept the copy sticked at the bottom serving now as an insulator for the PCB against touching the blank metal.

READY !!!!! What a funny little TRX........

Now it was time for the first QSO with the new rig. I recently completed an other kit from USA. The ZM-2 QRP tuner. This is an excellent fit to be used with the Rockmite. This was my first station setup using a "random wire" antenna. With this setup I made my first QRPp QSO ever. The lucky one was G3UAA and I received RST 329 from him (not the best antenna, eh ?).....

As you can see above I am using an old modified PC-Mouse as a simple but very effective CW-Keyer (the keyer electonics are built into the Rockmite). The 7,2 Ah accu is certainly "overkill" for this application.

Another "Inside View":

Some call it now" FISHERMITES FRIEND"......

On the picture below you can see the Rockmite connected to a multiband Fuchs circuit. The Fuchs circuit is used with a half wave piece of wire. The advantage of the "Fuchs Antenna" is that you don't need any radials or HF counterpoise to have an effective radiator. The advntage of the "multiband" Fuchs circuit is that you can operate the walf wave wire not only on it's basic frequency but also on it's harmonics. The halfwave wire will have a gain like a half wave dipole on the basic frequency, but will have some small gain if operatd at the harmonics. For example a 21m long wire can be used on 40m, 20m, 15m and 10m. (on 20m, 15m and 10m with some gain) or 41m wire lenght for 80/40/30/20/17/15/10m band operation, etc. - I never tested this antenna with the Rockmite but when the weather becomes warmer (outdoor operation) I will give it a try.

This is the end of my tiny Rockmite story. I hope you enjoyed it........ ;-)

Some more things that I've built:

The ZM-2 antenna tuner kit (Z-Match) - very easy and fast to tune (no switchable inductor !).....tunes almost every wet rope:

The multiband Fuchs-Circuit explained above (source www.qrpproject.de)

Just a size comparison Rockmite, SW20+, ZM-2 Tuner (from left to right)

This page will be always "under construction" (I think)

Best 73 / 72 de Oscar, DJ 0 MY !