[Antennas] Portable antenna for RockMite

[fourninefour at yahoo.com]

Hey all,

Thanks for all the suggestions! I guess I should clarify that the RockMite I have now is for 40m but if 20m is a better band for a "fireside" QSO then I wouldn't mind picking up a 20m rig. That's the only reason I mentioned the 20m rig. Any strong opinions on the best frequency to use (7030 KHz or 1460 KHz) or is it pretty much a wash?

Another thing I should have mentioned is that the purpose of this rig is purely for entertainment and wont be carried with emergency communications in mind. So I'm not worried about having to get out the first time every time: a few casual contacts in the evening is my goal.


Antennas:
Thanks for the feedback everyone. I think that thin stranded & insulated wire or enameled copper will be the winner here. A good point was made about setup time versus the number of wire-ends in the air, I'm leaning away from a dipole at this point. The dipole I might try if I just can't seem to hear anything on the vertical or the longwire, because of the need to buy small-diameter coaxial cable. (Several good suggestions were made to me on the subject of feedlines for dipoles, so I'll take those into account while I play around.) At this point, I think a 1/4 wave vertical with a two- or three-wire groundplane or a longwire with a counterpoise seems like the best solution. But as was mentioned to me, "experiment!" so I'll try the vertical and the longwire both as they're both pretty low-investment antennas :-)

This leaves the key -- one good suggestion was to use a microswitch: I will look around at what more the web has to offer, but I did already try using a microswitch stolen from a dead computer mouse to see how that would feel... Feels pretty bad, but it may be better than tapping two wires together! I'll play around some more but if anyone knows of a straight key that would fit inside of a mint tin, let me know!

Thank you all so much for your suggestions. I'm going to start building this for 40m as a proof-of-concept sort of thing, and then when I get my system sorted out I'll probably buy a 20m RockMite or just get new crystals and convert this one to 20m. I've got enough to worry about just trying to find a battery (ideally rechargeable) small enough to fit in the tin with everything else...

I wish I could just hurry up and *know* CW. It's hard!!

73,
Nick, KI4YSP