Franco Bachetti ISØVSU is0vsu@sardiniaqrp.

com
November, 2003

The Rock Legend

Talking about a legend has never been easy. But it isn’t Jimi Hendrix’s and his timeless
music. I’m talking about a small QRP RTX named Rock-Mite®.
His inventor, Dave Benson K1SWL (former NN1G) studied this wonderful circuit by mixing
technology, economy, effectiveness.
When I started building my first Rock-Mite® QRP RTX I thought I should connect it to
bandpass or notch filters, and make some alchemy to avoid the stress of Broadcasting leakages.
But the Legend works alone : no filters, only an antenna, adjusted in lenght with the help of
my 14 Euros SWR Meter, one 12 Vdc battery, paddles (or key) and phones (or amplifier).

The Rock Mite

 Building the Rock-Mite
Rock Mite can be built in a “Altoid-Mint” type box (here in Italy we can use “Liquirizia
Amarelli” or similar boxes) or a normal Hammond or Ganzerli box. It can be assembled also in
a cutted double face PC board. I used for test purposes a box called “Fantasmino Kinder” wich
contains also the 12 Vdc /1,2 Amps sealed battery.
The construction, except the assembling of U1, is easy and well described in the text of RM
Instructions, and the RM can be built by Hams having at least some experience, just taking into
account that :
• U1 should be soldered first, because his assembling needs some free space around it. It isn’t
very simple : I used a small soldering iron and a big light lens.
• U3, Q1, Q2, Q3, are static-sensitive components, (use a grounded soldering iron).
• D3, D4, D5 are easy to be reversed (check the figure : that was my first mistake).
• The original sockets are good quality, but I replaced them with golden-plated ones due to the
fact that I live near the Mediterranean Sea and, you know, the salt is terrible for contacts : a little
sea drop is able to destroy a contact.
• If you don’t use any socket for the IC’s, and sometimes have to replace U2 or U3, it is better
to cut the IC pins and disassemble them, one at time, with soldering iron, then discard the IC
body : this simple rule, in case of fail, may be applied to other components.
• Q1 should be DC loaded, no coupling capacitor should be used (this was my 2nd mistake).
• Chokes and ferrite beads on 12 V inlet, phone output and key input are always a good way to
reject stronger broadcast signal that can bypass thru phones, power or key lines.

Components
I replaced the original 400 mW PA (2N2222) and his 10 Ω emitter resistor with a 1 W PA
2N3553 and 4.7 Ω resistor : some more dB, for a stronger signal over my poor antenna system.
U3 is a pre-programmed IC used for :
1. Sidetone
2. Frequency Shift between TX and RX
3. Frequency Shift Reverse
4. Built-In Iambic Keyer.
The sidetone is a square wave frequency connected to phone thru C8 (0.1 uF).
The sidetone level depends on C8 reactance, so you can replace this capacitor with a smaller
one to decrease the sidetone level, and, if the cap is replaced by rc filter (100 ohms and 0.1 uF
in series and 0.1 uF from Q1 source to gnd, the sidetone will become sine waveform ; final
values depend on impedance of phones.
The frequency shift (~0.7 kc) determines the pitch of rx audio signal due to the difference
between incoming and LO (Y2) frequencies.
The frequency shift can be reversed, to work another station.
The built-in iambic keyer is default 16 wpm, but can be modified by following the simple
instructions.
Grounding the two Xtals is very important to improve their mechanical stability and
shielding (Y2) from broadcastings.

Input Filter
Dave (dave@smallwonderlabs.com) solved the problems of the broadcastings by projecting an
input xtal filter, composed by Y1, the same frequency of (Y2) LO xtal, and some components.
The loss of Y1 is compensated by U1 (SA612 SMT IC) gain: the result is a 3 x 2.5 cm front
end/amplifier/product detector.

Operation (taken from Dave’s description)

The Rock-Mite is a crystal-controlled direct-conversion transceiver operating on 7040 KHz, the

North American 'watering-hole' for QRP activity, or 14060 KHz for the 20M version. It has an 8-
pin PIC microcontroller on-board which controls a T-R offset on key-down. A brief tap of a
pushbutton control switch reverses the offset to yield a second operating frequency. Pushing and
holding on the pushbutton activates the speed adjustment routine for the built-in Iambic keyer. If
you'd rather use an external keyer or straight key, there's a 'drop-through' mode which allows use
of an external keying source.You'll note in the image above that the Rock-Mite uses two crystals.
The first is used in the local oscillator for transmitter and receiver. The second is used as a
receiver front-end filter. This crystal significantly reduces the SWBC energy present at the
receiver mixer; as a result, unwanted SWBC reception is dramatically reduced.The Rock-mite
uses one surface-mount part with fairly large spacing. There are no toroids to wind, so assembly
should be a snap! The Rock-Mite uses subminiature epoxy-encapsulated RF chokes instead of
toroids- maximum harmonic content is -33 dBc for either 40 or 20M version..
 Specifications (without mods)

- Double-sided PCB 2.0" x 2.5", plated-thru-holes, solder masked & silkscreened for easy
assembly
- 0.5W power output at 12V supply.
- Supply voltage range 8-15V
- Tuning: fix-tuned, two frequencies ~7039/7040 Khz (~14060/14061 on 20M)
-automatic T/R offset, reversible
-Built-in Iambic keyer, 5-40 WPM
-Built in sidetone, 700 Hz

Layout
V+
'SWITCH'
'DASH' AF
'DOT'
R8 2N7000 R1 D3
1K 1K 5.1V (ground
C8 C7 C101
Q1 .01 crystal
- +

47
47 R7 U1 case)
- +

D4 - + 100K
.1 uF

C9 3.3
.022
100

.1 uF
100

SA Component
C103 R2 Y1 Detail-
C17

612
470

Ilustration
4.7K C4 upright diode installation
5.1V C104 C105 C106 R6 10 C5 .1 uF (D1-D5)
ANTENNA
R5 1M C102 .01 D2
U3 U2 100 R3 C2 47
100

12C LM D1 1N4148
C6
508A 1458 4.7K C1 47 L3
C107 R4
2N7000 R10 D5 R9 C16 1 uH
Q2 1M C109 L1 .001 L2
MV1662 100K 7.5V 4.7K (unused- see banded end
.1 uF .1
D6 R16 1 uH supplement) is cathode
10 uH
C108

R15 100 C13 C14

.01

C111
Y2 R11 47K .01 Diode-Schematic
C15
470

(ground 47K Q6 - +
Installation- Pictorial
crystal Q4 R13 Q5 C3 D7
case) 1K .01 R18 C110 47 uF
C10 C12 10
R12 68 47 .1 uF (see text)
D8
68 R14 100 Q3 The Rock-Mite-40
22K C11 100 R17 2N7000
rev.3/19/2003
2N2222A 3/19/03
1N4148
2N4401
 C6
100 pF
V+
R5
R1 1M
1K
C101 V+
.01 D3
R6
5.1V
10
C103
C1 C7
Y1 8 C5 R2
47 C8
47 47 uF tone
C2 .1 4.7K 8 .1
2 U1 5 6
A Q1
U2 AF
1 7 D
D1 D2 47 C102 5 4
4 2N
4.7K R7
.01 3 6 R3 7000
1M D7 100K
.01 .022 R4 C
C3 C4
+
C9
B 3.3 uF

V+

V+ C109
R8
.1
1K V+ Q4 R15
D4 R11 2N C108 47K
.1 47K
C104 R9 4401 .01 R16 L1 C14 L2 L3
5.1V Q2
R10 Y2 Q5 100 10 uH .1 1 uH RFC 1 uH RFC
2N7000 4.7K 100K
Schematic Diagram

2N C13
1 ANT.
4401 .01
7 Vdd 3 C12 Q6
DOT Shift
GP0 GP4 C10 2N
C105
R12 C11 D8 2222A
6 5 R13
DASH GP1 GP2 tone 47 470 1000 470
D6 1K R18 A C15 C16 C17
C106 D5 R17
4 GP3 GP5 2 T/R MV1662 22K 100 10
(SW.) 7.5V 68 (2 pl) B
Vss .1
100 pF
U3 C
(3 pl) C107 8 100
12C R14 the 'Rock-Mite'
D 47 uF
508A
C111 D. Benson, K1SWL 9/10/2002
T/R G S C110
Q3
2N7000
 Parts List

Qty. Ref. Designator Component Description

3 C1,C2,C12 47 pF NPO disk cap '47' or '47J' ceramic
2 C10,C11 68 pF disk or mono. cap '68' or '68J'
4 C6,C105-107 100 pF disk or mono. cap '101' or '101J'
2 C15,C17 470 pF disk or mono. cap '471' or '471J'
1 C16 1000 pF (.001) mono. Cap '102J'- epoxy case
5 C3,C13,C101,102, 108 .01 uF disk cap '103', ceramic
1 C4 .022 uF monolithic cap '223', epoxy case
6 C5,C8,C14,C104,109,110 .1 uF monolithic '104', epoxy case
1 C9 3.3 uF electrolytic cap
2 C7,C103 47 uF electrolytic cap
1 C111 47 uF electrolytic cap low-profile case
4 D1,D2,D7,D8 1N4148 diode In bag-strip
2 D3,D4 1N5231B diode- 5.1V Zen. In bag-strip
1 D5 1N5236B diode- 7.5V Zen. In bag-strip
1 D6 MV1662 varicap diode 2 leads- stripes only
1 HS1 TO-18 heat sink, anodized see text
1 L1 10 uH RF choke Brown-blk-blk,
In bag-strip
2 L2,L3 1 uH RF choke Brown-blk-gold,
In bag-strip
2 R6,R18 10 ohm resistor Brown-blk-blk-gold
3 R14,R16,R17 100 ohm resistor Brown-blk-brn-gold
3 R1, R8, R13 1K ohm resistor Brown-blk-red-gold
3 R2,R3,R9 4.7K ohm resistor Ylw-violet-red-gold
1 R12 22K resistor Red-red-org-gold
2 R11,R15 47K resistor Ylw-violet-org-gold
2 R7,R10 100K resistor Brown-blk-ylw-gold
2 R4,R5 1 M resistor Brown-blk-green-gold
3 Q1,Q2,Q3 2N7000 transistor (TO-92 package)
2 Q4,Q5 2N4401 transistor (TO-92 package)
1 Q6 2N2222A transistor Metal can package
1 U1 SA612/602AD SMT IC in semiconductor bag
1 U2 MC1458, LM1458 IC 8-pin DIP IC
1 U3 12C508A 8-pin DIP IC,
pre-programmed
2 Y1, Y2 7.040 Mhz crystal
2 -- 8-pin IC socket (on antistatic foam)
1 -- 2-1/2" RG-174/U coax
1 -- Printed circuit board 'K1SWL 9/02'