Rockmite

This is so cool that I had to tell someone. I have been on a kit building binge. Problem is that most of the kits I've been building I can't use because I can't do Morse yet. I finally got all the parts for the Rockmite40 together. Finished building the BLT yesterday. Hooked a long wire (antenna)up to it... plugged it in... and Nothing!!!! Bashed head into wall. Took BLT apart. Found stupid stuff that I had done and unstupided them. Put it back together and plugged it all back in and Nothing!!!! Bash head on bench repeatedly. Look at power supply. Yep, that would be 13.8 volts (all ham stuff seems to run on 13.8 volts as opposed to say 5, 9, or 14 or even 24). Plug in headphones. Nope, nada. Nothing there. Bang head repeatedly on work bench. Disassemble BLT again. Nothing obviously wrong and given that the number of parts in there is about 5 there's not a whole lot to go wrong. Checked the wire diagram and it was right. Hmm, must be Rockmite. I haven't smoke tested it yet.

First digression (actually 3rd but they've all been on point). To smoke test something is to plug it into a power source and see if it becomes a voltage to smoke converter. There are standard practices (rituals) one is supposed to follow. Things like rub blue mud into one's navel in the light of the new moon while forgoing the pleasure of installing the components into the chassis so that you can trouble shoot if things go wrong. I forwent this standard practice as I did a bang up job and knew that there would be no smoke when I plugged it into a power source. Just pure clean electronic goodness. End of digression.

Dawning realization with concurrent feeling of nausea in general stomach area (no blue mud, stuff really works) that I was probably going to (ghaack!) have to disassemble the #$%^& thing. Before hurling said Rockmite40 object at wall I notice something strange. The power cord looks weird.

4th digression. There is structure to troubleshooting. Usually doesn't involve a lot of shouting unless you are in my shop. Then there words and actions one should not be offended at if you enter into said sanctum. First step, always, is to ask the eternal question "IS IT PLUGGED IN?" Because in the thrill of the chase when one is staring at a non-functioning box about to be hurled at the wall and one finds that the power cord was forgotten to be plugged in (or even installed) one tends to feel, ummm, very chagrined. While I had not screwed up that badly and said unit was plugged into a real live power source it didn't look like a sturdy connection. And low and behold I examine the el-cheapo power supply that I have bought from an online discount house that sells product retrieved from dumpsters while throwing out the old laptops and find that the tip is the wrong size. I am not getting a good connection into the box. It was the one sort of like the one that the kit designer had recommended but was even cheaper (really hard to accomplish by the way) than the one they had recommended. What to do. I go online today and find the first part number of the connector that was soldered to the power supply. Then I find the data sheet for it and get the exact measurements. Mine is to long and too wide. No kidding. I find another supplier. That's close. That has something that may work but is not readily apparent from the low res pic on their website. I have to go to.....

The Shack. Now, since a few years ago when the "Shack" became a phone retailer and a retailer of crappy foreign computerized toys and RC cars one could find electronics parts. The name itself is a direct reference to what hams call their radio installations. Whether it is a room or a shed it is typically referred to as The Shack. Not thinking that they will actually have electronics supplies I go and check out "The Shack". And lo, they have stuff. And in this instance it was pretty cool. Way totally overpriced but really great idea. It is a power supply with no tip on it. And then a wall full of tips. Every kind of power supply tip imaginable. So that no matter what you needed to plug in you could find a way to replace the power supply that you left sitting in the Ulan Bator airport when chasing a connecting flight. Price was insane ($26 for both pieces as opposed to the $2.50 one I had bought from the dumpster divers). So bring said tip to employee and ask if he knew what the length dimension of said tip was and could he tell me. Look was priceless. "How am I suposed to know how long the stupid plug is?" I then get to educate an enquiring young mind about the mysteries of the "Data Sheet". I now appear to be an under rock dweller. I suggest that if he could navigate that internet thingy to his corporate site he could then look up the data sheet and share that information with me. This involves calling over his manager to see how he should proceed. She suggests that he look it up at "RadioShack.com." Which with mighty pressings of two stubby fingers the young gentleman in question finds that that information is not included. Hoping that I am not out $26 I reassure myself that I can bring it back if it's not the right one and I purchased said overpriced item. I then squirrel it away in my back pack and go back to work. At the end of the day I race home and eat noodles and then find all the pieces parts and using the brand new spiffy power supply and a pair of headphones I smoke test the Rockmite 40 and BAM! No not a voltage to smoke converter I was imitating Emeril. BAM! it squealed. Like proverbial porcine equivalent. It worked. It talked to me (the keyer wanted to be set to a speed and it beeped a morse s to let me know that.) This is so way cool that eventually I will have to post a picture of the entire rig once I change out a couple of the resistors so that I can run it off of batteries in the field. Whoot. That was just another case of not so instant gratification. What is it you ask? Oh, it's a morse code transmitter that fits into a case smaller than a pack of cards that works on the 40 meter (7MGhz) band of the short wave frequencies. And another incentive for me to learn code.