I’m going to build myself a Rock Mite for SOTA use on 7.030. It’s on order…
(I would have liked an ATS-3b from KD1JV but they have run out and were a little more pricey)
My goal is to make a nice little ultra lightweight QRPp (<1W) station to offset my QRO (Icom 706 etc) station
Have any of you had any experience building and using one for SOTA?
I wonder how effective the 500mw will be. Although I note that last summer I was in QSO with someone in Kent when I was on CE-005 using 80m CW and he was only using 50mw and remained 53-55 throughout the QSO.
Look forward to any experiences regarding building or use of QRPp for SOTA actvations.
In reply to G0AZS:
Hi Marc,
ok, if you ordered your new trx .
if not there are trx on the market who costs a few euros more and makes
an output 0-10watt and a vfo for tuning over the whole 40m-band.
but i also like these ultra-small portable transceivers like the rockmite.
try to use a fullsize - dipol and no mobile or portabel antennas . by 1 watt
its better to use efficient antennas.
Under good propagation its possible to work plenty of chasers in cw across europe. also with only 1watt.
i haven´t the circuit here, but maybe you can make a little change to rx/tx on
7032khc…
Yes I thought of some others but with the Rock Mite at about 20-25 Euros at the moment (inc. postage ordered direct from the US), it’s worth trying.
As for the frequency, I think I just need to use 7.032 crystals instead of the 7.030 ones supplied for my version. (But these might cost more than the kit unless I can find some…)
I have an 80m PSK Warbler I built from a Small Wonder Labs kit. Excellent PCB and kit and very easy to build. Mine worked 1st time of course Dave Benson is a fantastic chap to deal with and I heartily recommend his company. I have a simple PSK beacon part built to drive it, I just need to get on and finish it… PSK TX is easy, the RX is a bit harder. I’m looking for something light to run the RX software. The PSK warbler is QRO by QRPp standards, upto 4W. I think mine was about 2.5W but I might tweak the coils at tadge to get the output up.
Also, the G-QRP club are selling off Norcal-20 kits if they haven’t already gone. The details are in the latest Sprat.
Ah, nothing beats the feeling of having contacts on a rig you built yourself.
If you have fixed 40 m band, you can still try to optimize the propagation conditions by choosing the UTC carefully. For example with the VOAProp by G4ILO VOAProp . Check also space wx, contest calendar and other activations before your activation. Self spotting will of course help, though I have not done that so far myself. For short distance QSOs 500 mW should be fine. On F/AB I have copied some other activators at 100 - 300 km distance before connecting the antenna to the radio.
Dave Benson is a fantastic chap to deal with and I heartily recommend his company. I have a simple PSK beacon part built to drive it, I just need to get on and finish it… PSK TX is easy, the RX is a bit harder. I’m looking for something light to run the RX software. The PSK warbler is QRO by QRPp standards, upto 4W. I think mine was about 2.5W but I might tweak the coils at tadge to get the output up.