[Fists] Rock Mite in England

[Stan Reas]

Hello Folks:

I enjoyed building and operating a little 40 Meter Rock Mite so much that I 
decided to build one for Chuck, M0AVW. He is the chap who handles the QSL 
cards over in England.  He had sent me a pipe tobacco tin in which he had 
stored nuts and bolts.  So I mounted the Rock Mite in that tin.

After I finished building it I ran a "field check" with it and worked:

	Matt, KR4WI FISTS # 10228 in Jackson, KY who was running 2 watts

	Al, N1UIY FISTS # 6105 in Athol, MA who was running 5 watts

	Roger, N1TG in Naugatuck, CT who was also running 5 watts
	
So I packed up the Rock Mite along with the latest batch of QSL cards and 
sent it over to Chuck.

Quoted below are the two Emails I got from Chuck concerning the "Dynamite" 
little rig.

First on December 29th he wrote:

QUOTE
Hi Stan,
     What a wonderful surprise I got when I opened your batch of QSL cards 
this afternoon. It was very unexpected, its great, thank you so much it is 
so good of you to send me it.  I got it set up with my dipole and put a 
call out only to find some German telling me to QSY - Hi.  Then I knew it 
was working so I tried to get a sig report off him but all he could say was 
QSY - Hi.  I asked him for his call but he would not give me it, and said I 
was on the SSTV freq so I checked the band plans and found our QRP is .30 
but we can use CW all though the band.
I will carry on calling for a couple of weeks to see what response I 
get.  I have taken my HF rig out of line and replaced it with the mighty 
Rock Mite for the near future - Hi.  But yes Stan if I have any problems 
with contacts I will let you know but please let pay for the crystals you 
have been more than kind.  This is the best present I have had this Xmas, 
my old FT101Z died about nine months ago so that left me with Alinco and no 
spare rig but now I have a spare and a QRP one also thanks again Stan.
The wx here has got really cold last night it was minus 6 and it has stayed 
below all day.  It was nice to have a chat with Carolyn when I rang I think 
she recognised my voice but I don't expect you get many calls from little 
old England.  Ok Stan I am going to play with the Rock Mite and see who I 
can find. Thanks again.
                   best 73s es 88s Chuck
UNQUOTE

He had called on the telephone and talked to my wife, Carolyn.  I was out 
playing golf - Hi !

Then on January 5th he wrote:

QUOTE
HI Stan
I thought I would let you know how I was getting on with this little 
Rock/Mite.  Well mate all I can say is
(brilliantly) I got chased off the SSTV freq so I got a pair of 7.030 
crystals and put them in and its going great.  I have had six contacts so 
far, two on the south coast of the UK one up into Scotland, two into 
central UK and one into North Germany.  I am now looking for contacts 
further away - Hi  But the German one was 550 miles.  And talk about rag 
chew, all the guys want to know what the hell is a Rock/Mite as it seems no 
one over here has heard of one so it takes me ages to explain - Hi.
Anyway thats it for now but I will keep you up to date with any better 
contacts, and thanks again for this little box of dynamite.
                                       best 73s Chuck
UNQUOTE

Since the QSO with the German 550 miles away was made running only 400 mW, 
that will qualify Chuck for the QRP-ARCI "1000 Miles per Watt" certificate.

You never can tell with 40 Meters opening up at night, we might even be 
able to have a Trans-Atlantic Rock Mite QSO.  Give a listen around 7.030 
MHz for M0AVW and his Rock Mite.

73, Stan - K4UK