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write your own review of the Small Wonder Labs Rock-Mite.
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PS7HD
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Rating: 5/5
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Jan 26, 2012 18:39
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EM BOA HORA
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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ACHO QUE ,COM ESSA COMPRA, ANTECIPEI EM ALGUNS ANOS A PERCEPÇÃO DE QUE TRABALHAR EM QRP NOS LEVA A BUSCA DE QUALIDADES INTERESSANTES PARA UM RADIO AMADOR, MAS, COMO DIRIA JACK, VAMOS POR PARTES.
-COMPRA TRANQUILA, CHEGOU EM 20 DIAS, BRAZIL HI, COMPLETO E BEM EMBALADO, GRANDE QUALIDADE DE PLACA E COMPONENTES.
-MONTAGEM SEM PROBLEMAS, AJUDA DO EXPERIENTE TÉCNICO E FUTURO HAM(STÉFANO), UMAS QUATRO HORAS.
-OS MANUAIS, SWL E DO NE1RD, NECESSÁRIOS.
-FUNCIONOU DE PRIMEIRA, AINDA SEM CAIXA, MAS A ESTAÇÃO 900KHz AM TOMOU CONTA, COMEÇA ENTÃO AS MODs:
# RESISTOR DE 1K NAS ILHAS LIVRES COM OPÇÃO LIGA/DESLIGA EM CHAVE NO PAINEL TRASEIRO, FUNCIONA COMO UM FILTRO PARA BCI,
# MICRO CHOQUE 3,3uH E CAP. 150pF NPO EM SÉRIE DO VIVO CONECTOR ANT. A TERRA, ADEUS RAIO NORDESTE,
# CAP. ELETROLÍTICO E CERÃMICO PARALELO NA ALIMENTAÇÃO (FILTRO),
# 2N3053 NO LUGAR DO 2N2222, R18 DESCE PARA 6R8,
# DIODO SÉRIE NO +13,3 (ANTI ESTÚPIDO) ENTRADA,
# CHAVE COM LED PARA "NO AR".
BEM, E AS QUALIDADES INTERESSANTES PRO HAM?
COMEÇA COM UM OLHAR QUESTIONADOR PARA AS ANTENAS E ..., SEGUE COM MUITA PESQUISAS E TESTES, REFINA AS HABILIDADES. A IDÉIA É ESSA O RESTO É UMA QUESTÃO DE TÉCNICA.
HE..., O FT897D DESCANSA QUANDO VOU PRA 7030 KHz, O RM ASSUME A DIPOLO DE FIO A 9m E LANÇA SEUS AFOITOS 600mW, ENTRE OS OUVINTES ALBERTO WP4L, PORTO RICO, 4369,3 Km.
É ISSO!
FORTE ABRAÇO, NATHAN - PS7HD
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KJ4QAN
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 19, 2011 14:44
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It's a great little kit for a beginner.
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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This is a great little kit for the first time builder. Don't believe the postings that claim it's not. Or the guys that say they can build it in one evening. They drink too much coffee ;-> Take your time putting it together and do a good job. It's not a race. The time NOT taken putting it together carefully is always paid back twice during troubleshooting what went wrong.
It's amazing what such a simple receiver will pick up even though its stuck on one frequency. Use a dipole thrown up in a tree and feed it with a short length of coax. This neat little unit is meant for sitting outside in your easy chair or out camping. It's not really a toy, but it's not meant to be a permanent fixture of your shack either. It's made to have fun with! There are all sorts of mods on the internet so that you can spend 5 times what you originally spent. But to me that seems to defeat the purpose of this great little kit. It's meant to demonstrate how little radio you need to get on the air. If you look at it from a historical standpoint, it's far more complicated than the tube circuits I have in my 1963 edition of the ARRL Handbook. Count each transistor (6) as one triode and each op amp (3) as at least a pentode. Then you'd need a heavy multi-turn transformer to get them all warmed up...you see what I mean.
I've noticed that some people on the internet are bothered by the thump they hear at the beginning and end of T/R. That's normal for such a simple setup. It's the sound your headphones cause during the load dump (impedance change) that takes place when Q1 switches to mute the receiver or let it back in. You'll notice that you don't hear that click again during transmitting or while changing the keyer speed with S1. If it really bothers you, U1 (the audio amp) is an LM1458 which is a dual op amp. You could make a 2-pole filter without to much effort, but I doubt that it would get rid of all the thump. What do you want for 29 bucks? Live with it, get it, love it.
I got the little 'MityBox' for mine from American Morse. It's made especially for the Rockmite and it's a real beauty. I didn't use a pot to adjust volume. Seemed kind of pointless. Instead, I used a miniature toggle switch from Radio Shack to switch a 1M resistor in parallel with R5 on the AF. It gives a -3dB cut and it helps with QRN.
If there's ever an EMP from a nuke flash over the USA this might be the only radio I have left to contact the outside world! There will be plenty of batteries left to draw upon for help.
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KE7OPK
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Rating: 5/5
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Apr 4, 2011 14:24
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HAPPY CUSTOMER
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Terrific seller, great communication. Order placed on a Saturday night, kit was in my mailbox by Thursday. Built the circuit board in an evening. Used one small drop of high viscosity CA glue (hobby shop item, use accelerator) to mount the SMD IC to the PC board, and soldered with a 12 watt grounded iron from Radio Shack using a fine pencil tip. This is the most sensitive operation, and is done first. Instructions are good, as are the quality of the components and PC board, and I had a 100% working kit when finished. I highly recommend buying the connector/gain knob/wire kit for the extra $15. You cannot beat his price on all those goodies. Also included in the connector kit is a diode for the power supply input, which is a mod. not shown with the basic kit. The gain control is set up so that when the pot is at max resistance (1 meg), the gain is highest. I am using the "Near End Fed Antenna for 20 Meter" project which was Featured in March 2011 QST. Checked the transmit against my Yaesu Ft-857D, and heard the frequency shift from the Rockmite, and the 5 watt signal from the Yaesu was received VERY strong. Nice introduction to modern PCB construction, considering I am used to working on old Heathkits and breadboarding tube circuits and crystal radios! Recommended to all who can be methodical and use patience. Clean your soldering iron often, and keep the tip sharp with some 120 grit sandpaper. Amazing what a little patience and extreme care to be certain all components are identified and placed correctly can produce. If I can succeed...
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WA0TPN
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Rating: 5/5
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Nov 11, 2010 18:41
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Great fun!!!
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I just replaced the 7.040 mhz crystals with the 7.030 mhz crystals and made called "CQ" once from my home in northeast Iowa. A station in Alabama responded immediately and we had a nice QSO. There is beauty in simplicity...a tiny radio...battery power...wire antenna. Great fun!
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M0JHA
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Rating: 5/5
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Apr 16, 2010 14:19
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great kit
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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great value kit. £21.10 delivered the the UK. constructed in a few hours . This kit is within the capabilities of anyone with minimal electroncs knowledge as the instructions are well laid out. I got the 20m version and just need to box it up.
if you like cw and qrp buy one , you really won't be dissapointed.
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WA1GJF
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Rating: 5/5
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Mar 8, 2010 05:24
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Outstanding!
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Ok. the promised update. You "gotta" buy this kit!!
Arrives very well organized,no shortages,and went together without a hitch. Hint: Download the supplement, essential for success. Here we have a single conversion receiver, no BCI, no intermod, the transmit tone is clean, 2 frequencies, enough audio to drive a small speaker, more than I expected. Hint: Salvage a speaker from one of those "Talking" cards, works perfectly, if you don't want to use an earphone. GO FOR IT!!
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WB0FDJ
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Rating: 5/5
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Feb 9, 2010 17:51
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A very neat radio!!!
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I'd already built the SW20+ and was really impressed with Daves kits. So the Rock-Mite was my next stop. I think it's easy for a lot of hams to forget what can be done with a minimalist radio. What I got in the mail was a fat envelope. I put it together during a weekend without a hitch and it worked the first time, more of a testimony to the quality of the kit than my abilities. Theres not much that can go wrong with this outfit. Put it in a Mitybox originally but have since transplanted it to a pipe tobacco tin. This radio has a small but loyal (and very qualified) following and there are oodles of mods. Next in line is a simple VXO project. I learned a LOT about radio from doing this. For the money you absolutely can't go wrong.
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N4ODC
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Rating: 5/5
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Jan 3, 2010 12:22
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ROCKMITE IS A GREAT QRP RIG
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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HELLO,I HAD TO WRITE THIS REVIEW ABOUT THE GREAT QRP RADIO.. A WHILE BACK I WAS NOT ACTIVE IN CW FOR A FEW YEARS..AND SEEN A ROCKMITE 40 ON EBAY FOR SALE.I BOUGHT IT,AND PUT IT ON THE AIR,LET ME TELL YOU I WAS SURPRISED .AFTER CALLING CQ FOR 2 TIMES A STATION CAME BACK TO MY CALL...IT IS HARD TO BELIEVE THAT THIS LITTLE RIG WORKS BUT IT DOES,,AND IT GOT ME BACK INVOLVED WITH CW.AND I WILL NEVER LET IT GO...I WANT TO THANK THE GUY WHO BUILT IT,WHO EVER HE WAS,AND HIS LOSS WAS MY GAIN...AND THANKS TO QRP RIGS FOR GETTING ME BACK INTO HAM RADIO AND ALSO HAM.NET FOR EVERYTHING THEY DO TO PROMOTE HAM RADIO
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CT1BWW
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Rating: 5/5
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Oct 25, 2009 03:19
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SUPER QRP TRANSECEIVER!
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I've already mounted some different QRP's.
I decide to purchase the ROCKMITE and was very surprise with this KIT. This is Realy a SUPER QRP Transceiver, it's very easy to mount ofcourse you must have some knowledge about electronic but I'm sure you can do it.
There is a Very Good Instructions Manual .
When you buy the Kit from Small Wonders Lab you will found on the Package a good Quality of PCBoard with identification all places for components and with Instructions you will see that's easy to build yourself.
There is also a ROCKMITE Yahoo Group when you can share your comments or if you have any difficulties other Members can help you.
My First RockMite was 20 meters, I call "ROCKY-TWENTY" , i "love" so much this LITLE QRP that NOW I've Purchase the 30 Meters.
The Great Challenge for a Operator is using a RIG builting by yourself and using LOW POWER.
I'm sure you will Never Disapointed and ONE THING is SURE! You will Learn a Lot with QRP KITS and electronics.
Disfrute Radio and QRP!
73s from Marq/CT1BWW
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