tening at Field Day, 1994, where members part, to the energy and enthusiasm of the on receive, necessitating the

e, necessitating the use of a larger

of the Zuni Loop Expeditionary Force used members of NorCal, who helped test and battery. A discussion of battery life consider-
ations can be found in “A Solar-Powered
it on 80, 40, 20 and 15 m. There, Sierra refine early prototypes, procured parts for
Field Day,” May 1995 QST.
compared favorably to the Heath HW-9 the field-test units and suggested future 5Solid-State Design, p 87. This book is out of
and several older Ten-Tec rigs, having as modifications.8 This project should serve print but may be available used.
good or better sensitivity and selectivity — as a model for other clubs who see a need 6Full and partial kits are available. The full kit

and in most cases better-sounding sidetone for an entirely new kind of equipment, comes with all components, controls, con-
and break-in keying. While the other rigs perhaps something that is not available nectors, and a detailed assembly manual.
Complete band modules kits are available
had higher output power, they couldn’t commercially. for 80, 40, 30, 20, 17 and 15 m. For informa-
touch the Sierra’s small size, light weight tion, contact Wilderness Radio, PO Box
and low power consumption. The Sierra has Notes 3422, Joplin, MO 64803, tel 417-782-1397;
consistently received high marks from sta- 1One of N6KR’s previous designs, the Safari-4, www.fix.net/~jparker/wilderness/
tions worked too, with reports of excellent is a good example of how complex a band- sierra.htm.
switched rig can get. See “The Safari-4....” 7The alignment procedure given here is neces-
keying and stability.
Oct through Dec 1990 QEX. sarily brief. More complete instructions are
2Band modules for 160, 12 and 10 m have also provided with the ARRL Template Package
CONCLUSION been built and are available for the kit (see on the accompanying Handbook CD and the
At the time this article was written, over note 6). PC board patterns, construction hints, kit instructions.
alignment and troubleshooting tips, and other 8The author would like to acknowledge the
100 Sierras had been built. Many have been
used extensively in the field, where the rig’s information about the Sierra is included in the contributions of several NorCal members:
Template Packages section of the CD-ROM Doug Hendricks, KI6DS; Jim Cates,
unique features are an asset. For some bundled with this Handbook. WA6GER; Bob Dyer, KD6VIO; Dave
builders, the Sierra has become the primary 3For information about NorCal, visit www. Meacham, W6EMD; Eric Swartz, WA6HHQ,
home station rig. norcalqrp.org. Bob Warmke, W6CYX; Stan Cooper, K4DRD;
The success of the Sierra is due, in large 4Most multiband rigs draw from 150 to 500 mA Vic Black, AB6SO; and Bob Korte, KD6KYT.

THE ROCKMITE — A SIMPLE SINGLE-BAND CW TRANSCEIVER

Dave Benson, K1SWL, first described the
simple 1/2 W RockMite CW transceiver for
40 or 20 meters in April 2003 QST. The
RockMite — named for its crystal control
and its small size — has attracted an enthu-
siastic following, with thousands of the
transceivers in circulation. This project
builds on the original and adds versions for
80 and 30 meters. Changing the RockMite
frequency is a matter of replacing the two
(identical) crystals with frequencies of your
choosing. If you change bands, however, the
output harmonic filter and several capacitor
values must be scaled accordingly, and the
value of several Zener diodes may change.
Details are shown in Table 15.3.

Overview
The RockMite printed-circuit board mea-
sures 2.0 × 2.5 inches and fits in the Altoids
tin that is beloved by the QRP community as
an enclosure. Kits are available.1 A custom Several crucial details are missing from along with other functions. This can be done
made aluminum enclosure is available from this oversimplified picture, however. The with minimum cost and with little printed
www.americanmorse.com. operator who calls “CQ” with a crystal-con- circuit board acreage. Having made the de-
The RockMite uses the familiar direct trolled D-C rig will most likely get replies on cision to use a controller chip, a spare pin on
conversion (D-C) receiver scheme shown in zero-beat with his signal and without some that IC was dedicated to providing a 700 Hz
Fig 15.12. There isn’t much to it –– an oscil- means of shifting frequency (offset) between sidetone during key-down conditions. The
lator and a mixer convert received signals transmit and receive, will copy only low- controller also supplies a TR control signal
directly to audio and an amplifier boosts that frequency thumps. Additionally, the joy of and a shift signal. This shift signal merely
audio to usable levels. On transmit, the same sending CW will be somewhat tempered by provides a dc voltage level to a varicap (tun-
oscillator serves as the transmitter frequency the lack of a sidetone circuit to monitor your ing) diode to pull the crystal oscillator fre-
source, and only gain and keying stages are own sending. quency between transmit and receive. The
needed to bring the oscillator signal up to By using an 8-pin PIC microcontroller, it TR offset is reversible, as described later, so
levels usable for making CW contacts. becomes possible to add an iambic keyer that the RockMite offers two possible oper-

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 15.16 Chapter 15

Chapter 15.pmd 16 7/29/2008, 2:02 PM

 Fig 15.12 — The RockMite transceiver Table 15.3
simplified block diagram (inset) and
schematic. Most components are RockMite Component Values by Band
stocked by major distributors such as Band 80 m 40 m 30 m 20 m
Digi-Key, Mouser and Ocean State Freq (MHz) 3.560 7.030 10.106 14.060
Electronics (see the TISFind database at C1 47 pF 47 pF 47 pF 47 pF
www.arrl.org/tis). Resistors are 5% 1/4 W. C2 33 pF 47 pF 47 pF 47 pF
C1, C2, C10, C11, C12, C18 — NP0 disk C10, C11 68 pF 68 pF 33 pF 39 pF
capacitor, 5%. See Table 15.3 for C12 47 pF 47 pF 33 pF 39 pF
values. C15, C17 560 pF 470 pF 330 pF 220 pF
C3, C13, C101, C102, C108 –– 0.01 µF C16 1200 pF 1000 pF 680 pF 470 pF
disk capacitor. C18 330 pF 150 pF 82 pF 82 pF
C4 –– 0.022 µF monolithic capacitor. D3 1N5231B 1N5231B 1N5231B 1N5233B
C5, C8, C14, C104, C109, C110 –– 0.1 µF
(5.1 V Zener) (5.1 V Zener) (5.1 V Zener) (6.0 V Zener)
monolithic capacitor.
D4 1N5231B 1N5231B 1N5231B 1N5230B
C6, C105-107 –– 100 pF disk capacitor.
C7, C103, C111 –– 47 µF, 25 V (5.1 V Zener) (5.1 V Zener) (5.1 V Zener) (4.7 V Zener)
electrolytic capacitor. D5 Omitted 1N5236B 1N5231B 1N5230B
C9 –– 3.3 µF, 50 V electrolytic capacitor. (7.5 V Zener) (5.1 V Zener) (4.7 V Zener)
C15, C17 –– Disk capacitor, 5%. See L1 15 μH 10 μH 6.8 μH 4.7 μH
Table 15.3 for values. L2, L3 2.2 μH 1 μH 0.68 μH 0.47 μH
C16 –– C0G monolithic capacitor 5%. L4 5.6 μH 3.3 μH 3.3 μH 1.5 μH
See Table 15.3 for values.
D1, D2, D7, D8 –– 1N4148 diode.
D3, D4, D5 –– Zener diode, 0.5 W. See
Table 15.3 for values.
interested in only a small segment of an in any case, it’s nothing you’d want to apply
D6 –– MV1662 varicap diode. amateur band, a sharply tuned (narrow) directly to an antenna.
L1, L2, L3, L4 –– Molded RF choke, 10% band-pass filter may be used to good effect Capacitor C14 couples this waveform to
tolerance. See Table 15.3 for values. to accomplish that. The RockMite uses this the output harmonic filter, which comprises
Q1, Q2, Q3 –– 2N7000 FET. approach by utilizing a second crystal at the L2 and L3 and C15, C16 and C17. Since the
Q4, Q5 –– 2N4401 transistor. operating frequency at the receiver front end. original RockMite article was published,
Q6 –– 2N2222A transistor.
U1 –– SA612AD mixer/oscillator IC. The performance improvement with the FCC requirements for spectral purity
(Surface mount part is used on the kit added crystal is significant. changed from –30 dBc to –43 dBc. A series
PC board. If building from scratch, L-C circuit (L4 and C18) between the out-
consider the SA612AN in a DIP Circuit Description put of the low pass filter and the antenna
package.) The RockMite schematic is shown in Fig provides the needed additional harmonic at-
U2 –– LM1458N dual op-amp IC.
15.12. Local oscillator Q4 is a crystal- con- tenuation. In an effort to save space and re-
U3 –– 12C508A-04/P microcontroller.
(Must be programmed before use. See trolled Colpitts oscillator and runs continu- duce construction complexity, subminiature
Note 1.) ously. Its operating frequency is determined epoxy-molded RF chokes were used instead
Y1, Y2 –– HC49/U crystal (20 pF load) for by crystal Y2 and the surrounding compo- of the traditional toroids. For the frequen-
operating frequency of interest. nents. Diode D6 is a varicap (tuning) diode cies and power levels encountered in the
Crystals for popular QRP frequencies, and it furnishes a voltage-dependent capaci- RockMite, performance appears adequate –
including those shown in Table 15.3,
are available from
tance. This effect is used to pull the crystal – loss and self-heating were not significant.
expandedspectrumsystems.com or oscillator frequency about 700 Hz between Power output is about 500 mW with a 13 V
AF4K.com. transmit and receive to provide a beat-fre- dc supply and it will work at lower supply
quency offset. The voltage applied to D6 voltages.
through resistor R10 is 0 V with Q2 turned The receiver is continuously connected
on (conducting) or it is the rated Zener volt- to the antenna through coupling capacitor
age of D5 with Q2 off. C1. Diodes D1 and D2 limit the key-down
A sample of the local oscillator signal is voltage swing appearing at the receiver
coupled to the base of Q5. Q5 provides no front-end to safe values. The presence of Y1
voltage gain but instead serves to improve at the receiver front-end may seem some-
ating frequencies. This function has tradi- key-up isolation between the local oscillator what startling, but it serves as a narrow
tionally been done with a double-pole switch, and the antenna. This ensures that the key- band-pass filter to keep RF energy from fre-
but it’s easier and cheaper to perform that up energy to the antenna (back-wave) is neg- quencies far removed from the operating
function in firmware. ligible. Equally important, the lowered sig- frequency to a minimum. The SA612 mixer,
There is one other noteworthy trick em- nal level at the antenna terminal prevents which does the conversion from RF to au-
ployed in the RockMite. Builders of simple blocking effects from desensitizing the re- dio, needs all the help it can get.
receivers for 40 meters have all experienced ceiver. Readers may recognize the circuit as an
the joys of listening to shortwave broadcasts The output of the buffer stage is coupled adaptation of a Roy Lewallen, W7EL, cir-
mixed in with their CW. For most simple via C13 to the power amplifier stage, Q6. cuit — a widely used series-LC TR switch.
gear, the high levels of broadcast RF cause Diode D8 provides a clamp function, mak- The inductance in this circuit is being fur-
intermodulation distortion (IMD). This can ing it easier to drive the base of Q6. Transis- nished by crystal Y1 at a frequency slightly
be mitigated by the use of more robust tor Q6 runs Class C, is driven hard and, in off its series-resonant point. Perhaps less
(higher-current consumption and complex- theory, has only conducting and nonconduct- obviously, capacitor C2 forms an L network
ity) receiver front ends. Another approach is ing states for high efficiency. The waveform in combination with a portion of the crystal
to ensure that the broadcast signal levels at Q6’s collector would ideally be a square motional inductance. It’s impedance step-
reaching the receiver mixer are attenuated wave. In practice, there’s considerable up; there’s about 10 dB of voltage gain prior
enough to avoid their IMD effects. If you’re waveform distortion at that signal point and, to the mixer input (U1, pin 2). The values of

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Chapter 15.pmd 17 7/29/2008, 2:02 PM

 C1 and C2 were twiddled empirically to is approximately 16 WPM and the speed motorboating.
yield a 6 dB bandwidth of about 2 kHz and range is about 5 to 40 WPM. If no dot/dash • Provide separation between wires run to
to straddle the two operating frequencies inputs are received after about 1 second, the and from the RockMite board and the board
fairly evenly. For the 40 meter version, re- RockMite outputs a lower frequency tone components. Close lead proximity affords
ceiver filter response is –35 dB at 7100 kHz and reverts to normal operation. The Morse more chances for unwanted signal crosstalk.
and up. Although this value of ultimate re- S and subsequent tones are not transmitted Where wires do need to cross, keep them at
jection is unacceptably poor for typical crys- on the air. right angles to one another to minimize the
tal filters, here it needs to be only good coupling.
enough to yield significant improvement in Modifications • Don’t count on the enclosure itself to
IMD performance. The idea of a transceiver whose only con- provide ground return continuity. It may be
The mixer IC, U1, converts the received trol is a pushbutton switch probably flies in helpful to run a ground return wire from the
signal from the operating frequency to au- the face of recent trends in transceiver de- board to the headphone jack ground lug and
dio; that signal appears at pins 4 and 5 of U1. sign. If you feel the need to “manage” your from there to the dc power return. If you do
C4 provides some low-pass filtering to cut radio, resistor R5 may be replaced with a 1 this, continue to use a wire from board
unwanted audio hiss. U2 is a garden-variety MΩ audio taper potentiometer (wiper and ground to the main dc power return. You
dual op-amp (one-half is unused) configured one end-terminal used) to serve as a volume want to avoid conditions where one circuit
for a gain of about 200 (46 dB). This boosts control. Keep the leads short. path is carrying both audio and dc ground
the mixer’s output audio to headphone-us- Sidetone level can be altered by changing currents, and for that matter, RF as well.
able levels. Capacitor C6 provides an addi- the value of C8. Note: the “raspy” nature of • Ensure that the ground braid is used on
tional pole of audio low-pass filtering. the RockMite sidetone is caused by the the coax connecting the PC board to the an-
Transistor Q1 provides a simple mute square-wave nature of the signal. One or tenna jack. Connect the rig end to a conve-
function to reduce the amount of keydown more R-C networks (series-R, shunt-C to nient ground point near the antenna pad and
thump. It disconnects the audio amplifier ground) in the path from U3 pin 5 to C8 will be sure the other end makes connection to
from the headphones whenever the rig is soften the tone. A good starting point for this the antenna jack ground lug.
keyed. The large (transmitted) signal appear- filter is 10 Ω/10 µF. Broadcast pickup: There are two poten-
ing at the receiver during key-down yields a Adding a 1N4001 diode in series with the tial issues with the RockMite. Shortwave
dc offset at the mixer output, which is ampli- power supply (V+) feed will preclude re- broadcast (SWBC) will be more likely dur-
fied to a large transient by the audio ampli- verse-polarity mishaps. (The banded end ing the evening hours. Despite the presence
fier. The muting isn’t perfect but it’s a lot less goes toward the RockMite board.) Or better of the front-end crystal filter, some SWBC
fatiguing than none at all. Key-up recovery yet, use a 1N5818 Schottky diode for lower may occasionally be heard. A fix involves
time is set by C9 –– this value may be re- voltage drop. Any of the diodes 1N4001- reducing the signal levels getting to U1,
duced if you prefer quicker QSK (break-in). 1N4007 or 1N5818-1N5820 series is fine. which can be accomplished by changing R5
U3 is a 12C508A microcontroller device and They’re noncritical and all overkill for this to a 1 MΩ variable volume control as de-
has been custom programmed to provide application. scribed in the previous section. The use of an
iambic keyer (Mode B) and frequency shift The RockMite will run on a 9 V battery if antenna tuner will also assist in reducing the
functions. U3 pins 6 and 7 are typically con- R1 and R8 are changed from 1 kΩ to 470 Ω. out-of-band RF energy getting to U1.
nected to a pair of paddle inputs to provide This change increases receiver current con- Local AM broadcast interference is more
the keyer functions. Ground one of those two sumption from 25 mA to 40 mA when using likely during daylight hours when local AM
inputs during rig power up and the RockMite a 12-14 V supply. stations are on the air. Install a 1 kΩ resistor
will use the other input for the straight key or at the two unused pads immediately below
more capable external keyer. Troubleshooting D1/D2. Note that this fix does not help with
There are two operator controls on the Detailed troubleshooting information can shortwave broadcast. The fix was tested suc-
RockMite and they’re both implemented via be found in the file RMhelps.pdf, available cessfully at the ARRL lab, located within
a push-button switch closure, in order to for download from the Small Wonder Labs two miles of several 5 kW AM broadcast
ground controller pin 4. The two functions Web site (see note 1). Here are some of the stations.
are discriminated by the duration of the more common problems. Very low volume: This is a minimalist
switch closure. AC hum: Make sure Y2’s case is transceiver, so it won’t provide ear-splitting
A brief (< 250 ms) closure on the switch grounded. The RockMite has a lot of audio volume. Even so, with a good antenna and
reverses the offset to provide a second oper- gain. You may experience difficulty when headphones you should have little trouble
ating frequency. When you wish to work using an unregulated power supply or wall hearing signals. If everything else checks
another station, use this function to select transformer to power the rig. A regulated out, consider the following. Use a resonant
the higher of the two pitches on a received supply will help considerably in this regard. antenna, 50 Ω nominal, such as a dipole. If
signal. Note that the pitch at the converse If in doubt, try a battery supply. You may the antenna is nonresonant (random wire,
setting is a measure of how close to zero- use a 9 V battery temporarily to check out etc), use a tuner to make the antenna look
beat you are; ideally it would be just a low- the difference. like 50 Ω at the rig. SWR is not especially
frequency thump. If the two selections yield Howl in headphones: (Make sure you’re critical here. The worst that could happen is
a high pitch and a still higher pitch, you prob- not in straight-key mode with the key down. the loss of an inexpensive transistor (Q6).
ably won’t be able to work the other station. That’s the sidetone.) The combination of Headphones should be a low-impedance
A longer closure on the switch input puts high audio gain and wire lead treatments can stereo type, such as those used for personal
the keyer in a speed-adjustment mode. The yield an audio oscillation or “howl,” al- MP3 or CD players. If there are specifica-
RockMite outputs a Morse code S to ac- though this has not been reported often. Here tions on the package, look for a sensitivity
knowledge entry into this mode. Tapping are some things to try. spec of 104 dB/mW or better. And a final
(or holding) the dot paddle speeds up the • If using a battery supply, make sure it’s caution related to audio output: You’d be
keyer; the same operation on the dash paddle reasonably well charged. A nearly-ex- surprised how often reports of very low au-
slows it down. The default (power-up) speed hausted battery may cause howl or dio are traced to use of incorrect audio jack

15.18 Chapter 15

Chapter 15.pmd 18 7/29/2008, 2:02 PM

 or plug types. You won’t hear much with the A Thriving Community line at groups.yahoo.com/group/Rock-
audio output shorted to ground! This project started out as a party favor Mite_Group/.
and indeed, it was initially dubbed “a wire- A special thanks to Doug Hendricks,
Does It Really Work? KI6DS, for his material support with this
less code practice oscillator” –– somewhat
The receiver is direct-conversion, so the tongue-in-cheek. Once the first samples project and to Rod Cerkoney, NØRC, for his
audio you hear is busier than what’s typically were available, it became clear that the enthusiastic Web site support. Thanks also
found in a big rig. There’s some audio low- RockMite was a usable radio. Much of this to Steve Weber, KD1JV, for design sugges-
pass filtering, but it still doesn’t have the success can be attributed to the QRP tions during the development phase.
sharp roll-off characteristics prevalent with community’s use of watering holes. Many
1Complete parts kits for the RockMite, includ-
crystal IF filtering. Because the D-C receiver QRPers monitor those frequencies when
receives both sidebands equally well, there ing PC board, all on-board parts, a pro-
they’re in the shack and your chances of grammed microcontroller and instructions,
are twice as many signals as you’d expect of success with a “CQ” are surprisingly good. are available from Small Wonder Labs
a more capable receiver. Once you get the A gallery of construction pictures, modi- (www.smallwonderlabs.com). Pro-
hang of selecting which of the two operating fication information, links and related topics grammed microcontroller ICs alone are
frequencies to call someone on, the opera- may be found at www.qsl.net/n0rc/rm/. also available. RockMite object code (.hex
tion is pretty straightforward. file) may be found in the Templates section
There’s also a very active user’s group on-
of the Handbook CD-ROM.

Transverters
At VHF, UHF and microwave frequen- described. The most informative approach good system performance. The trans-
cies, transverters that interact with fac- would be to study carefully an actual ceiver’s performance should be either
tory-made transceivers in the HF or VHF project description. known or measured to assist in
range are common and are often home- The interface between the transceiver this effort.
built. These units convert the transceiver and transverter requires some careful
transmit signal up to a higher frequency planning. For example, the transceiver MICROWAVE TRANSVERTERS
and convert the receive frequency down power output must be compatible with the The microwave receiver section of the
to the transceiver receive frequency. The transverter’s input requirements. This Receivers and Transmitters chapter in
resulting performance and signal quality may require an attenuator or some modi- this Handbook discusses a 10-GHz trans-
at the higher frequencies are enhanced by fications to a particular transverter or verter project and provides references to
the frequency stability and the signal pro- transceiver. the QST articles that give a detailed de-
cessing capabilities of the transceiver. When receiving, the gain of the scription. The reader is encouraged to re-
For example, SSB and narrowband CW transverter must not be so large that the fer to these articles and to review the
from 1.2 to 10 GHz are feasible, and be- transceiver front-end is overdriven (sys- previous material in that chapter.
coming more popular. Some HF and VHF tem IMD is seriously degraded). On the
transceivers have special provisions such other hand, the transverter gain must be Other Information
as connectors, signal-path switching and high enough and its noise figure low The ARRL Microwave Projects CD, sev-
T/R switching that facilitate use with a enough so that the overall system noise eral RSGB publications and VHF/UHF
transverter. figure is within a dB or so of the trans- microwave conference proceedings
verter’s own noise figure. The formulas contain additional information about
VHF TRANSVERTERS in the Receivers and Transmitters chap- transverter design and construction. More
The methods of individual circuit de- ter for cascaded noise figure and cascaded information about these publications is
sign for a transverter are not much differ- third-order intercept points should be available from the ARRL Bookstore at
ent than methods that have already been used during the design process to assure www.arrl.org/shop.

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