Thanks for all those making a contact with me yesterday on W4G/NG-011
Rocky Mountain, northern Georgia (and several others during the last few months).
I’ve activated several mountains during my business trips here, always with my 5W, FT817 and a wire antenna.
Yesterday however I tried, for the first time, my home-made RockMite, fixed on 14.158, and half a watt (0.5W) only!
Made 10 CW QSO’s, with a best DX into the Azores, over 5000kms away.The antenna:
12.5m wire thrown into the trees as an inverted L, and a similar length wire as counterpoise just on the ground.
(and a home-made SOTABeams adventure tuner)
I used the 12V from the FT817, (but next time I’m going to try just a 9V battery).
It shows what lower power, and the help of SOTA spotters can do!
I made some more contacts yesterday on 40,30 and 10m, CW and phone, but that was with the 5W FT817
At one point during a qso my battery failed and I had to change to the backup pack, thanks for being patient!
I’m now about to head back to Europe, but hope to be back next year in Atlanta
73 Michael PA3BHF / M0MPM
2 Likes
PS: callsign used: W4/PA3BHF
I use a 10W solar panel and LM317 voltage regulator to power my rockmite. No success with SOTA contacts but that combo works really well.
Mighty Mite ? Count me in on that one!
Another mity mite weekend sounds like fun. I have since built a 30 meter Rockmite since last years event and have not taken it into the wild yet. Frank K0JQZ