Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Rockmite 20 Exploration "The Dyno Mite"

Well, I've pretty much finished the Rockmite 20 and everything seems good to go.  I put it up on the 40 dipole antenna to test its receiver and can pick up stations but the volume is pretty low.  I think a tuned 20M dipole would help in that area.  Here is a JPEG of it before the lid is made for it.



11 Mar 13:  Made my first QSO with the RM 20 and snagged a Californian station.  Wow!!!  The audio is low and I'll have to look for a problem there.  Otherwise it is doing fine.  Went to the hamfest in Claremore and bought some miniature coax for a GO-PACK.  Going camping with my RM...

14 Mar 13:  Make 3 more contacts with the RM 20.  2 to IL & 1 to TX.  I found that if I just monitor the freq its on 14060Kc and wait for a station to start a CQ I have a pretty good chance of getting their attention.  However I did make one contact with my own CQ.  Since the Crock Mite died an untimely death in the Josh Wells house fire I've yet to name it's replacement.  My daughter has suggested Dyno Mite and so it shall be.  A hint to it's ability to bust up rocks.

UPDATE:  I found that the actual frequency was 14.058 which misses the QRP watering hole of 14.060.  I wonder if I could but a trimmer cap to have a little frequency agility.  hmmmm

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