The Rockless QRP

The Rockless QRP

Reports From Other Hams

Unique Packaging Idea

From W9RCJ :”Finished the transceiver last night and was on the air this AM, made two contacts, one in PA and another in OK. The Case is a Double Bubble gum container that I have been saving for years, waiting to put it to a good use. and I finally found one. ”The case measures: 4.5” X 2.875” X 1.375”

Editors Note: Great packaging ingenuity!, Even my non-ham daughter said “it is so cute”. HI, W9RCJ adds that he has a shield for the VFO, but left it off for the photo. Great job!!!

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All Done and Putting Out Rf Power

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From N8BKY:”I put a counter on it and watched her settle down in frequency. settled down in about 45 minutes and hasn’t moved the last hour. Getting about 1 watt of power now after a few start up problems with components and a bad 2N4401.I may put a120 pf silver mica in the VFO. Other than the part problems it is far more than I expected in the little rig. I added an extra jack for a cheap speaker. If I can’t make out the code from the speaker all I have to do is slip on the headphones and not miss anything swapping jacks”

Editors Note: My congrats and thanks to N8BKY for bringing part problems and drawing inconsistencies to my attention. I believe they have all been corrected now. I too have noticed that after soldering together it takes quite a while for the heat to dissipate and for the rig to settle down in frequency. Neat construction N8BKY and thanks for hanging in there.

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Made His First Contact on the Rockless

From W4HH: Joe reports he got his Rockless on the air January 9, 2010 and made his first contact with WB4OFT who was about 260 miles away and gave him an S7 with S9 on peaks. W4HH has set up his own web site where he gives good hints and details of building his Rockless. He includes wise advice and warns of pitfall he would like others to avoid. Check out Joe’s website at www.w4hh.org. On the left side of his home page click on “Rockless QRP Rig” and you can read all about his building experiences including his photos and future packaging plans.

Editors Note: Thanks Joe. Your information should be very helpful to other builders of the Rockless.

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Again From W4HH: Joe has hooked up a Small Wonders Lab “Freq. Mite” to his Rockmite to give him a Morse signal readout of RF operating frequency.

Here is connection and operation information from Joe:

FreqMite AF out: Connect one end of a 100K ohm resistor to FreqMite AF out and the other end of the resistor to Rockless U2 Pin 6/junction of R2 and C6

FreqMite RF in: Attach a lead from FreqMite RF input to junction of Q3 emitter and R15.

FreqMite Ground and V+ go to respective 12 VDC + and ground.

FreqMite requires a normally-open pushbutton switch to ground to activate the freq counter. No jumpers on the FreqMite jumper pins

With these connections, when the button is pressed and released to activate the counter, the FreqMite sends three digits through the Rockless audio. These three digits are the frequency minus the leading MHz digit. For example, if the Rockless is tuned to 7035 the FreqMite sends 0 3 5

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