Ordered a Rock Mite

No, this isn't some little bug that likes rocks, it is a dual frequency QRP transceiver kit offered by Small Wonder Labs. I ordered a 40m kit, which will operate on 7039 and 7040 kHz. As supplied, it puts out a rompin' stompin' 500 milliwatts on a 12 volt supply! There are mods available to double this power, but I'm not going to try anything fancy until I get it running stock.

The other thing about this transceiver is that it is Morse code only (what else would one expect with only half a watt?). To this end I have been polishing up my Morse skills -- sure, I passed the required 5 words per minute test for the General class license, but like most folks who pass this test, they are still very shaky, at best. I think I could pass a test at 10 wpm now, if one were available.

Additionally, I am going to need a 40m antenna, and due to the lack of space to put up a dipole for this band, I have decided to get me a very compact antenna, namely the 40 m band Isotron antenna. I can put this in my attic where I expect it will perform adequately.

ERC and MARA Nets

Tomorrow, I will be acting as Net Control of the Olympia Area ERC Net and the MARA Cascades Chapter, South Section Net. The first will be held at 20:30 Pacific Time on the Olympia Amateur Radio Society's 3-band linked repeater system (147.360 Mhz duplexed at +600 Khz offset with 103.5 PL receive tone). The second will be held on 147.560 Mhz simplex) at 21:15 Pacific Time.