Rockmites

Some years ago I bought a Small Wonder Lab Rockmite-20 from QRPshop in Germany. As I didn't have a suitable antenna at the time, the project got shelved and the complete kit has been sitting, unbuilt, on my shelf. Now I have a Par-10/20/40 end fed antenna up covering the band I've no excuses. So, maybe next week in between other experiments I'll build it and try it on the air.  The reviews of the project on eHam.net are very good with a score of 4.9 out of 5 from 79 reviews. It is a clever design with a full keyer built in and using a couple of crystals with one as a front end filter to keep out the broadcast breakthrough.

Small Wonder Lab Kits

Dave Benson K1SWL has produced some wonderful Small Wonder Lab kits over the years including the famous RockMite transceivers, but he has decided to slow down a bit and get back to enjoying the hobby as a hobby. I think we don't realise just how much work is involved in a small ham radio company producing and supporting a range of kits. Dave's point about technical support and repairs rings bells with me: I get around 5-10 questions a week from people interested in my website projects and I am not even selling kits!

This was the notice on his website last week:

"Folks-

I took a ‘leap of faith’ in 1996, leaving the corporate world to undertake ‘Small Wonder Labs’ as a full-time venture.  Since then, it’s been a great experience.  I have to face facts, though: I’m getting older. The shortcomings in vision can be overcome with close-up glasses. More troublesome, though, are the muscular issues from spending hours a day at the computer, or with my head down, sorting parts into bowls.

Over the years, I’ve assisted countless customers with no-questions-asked replacement parts and troubleshooting advice. The issue of repairs has been problematic, though.  While no one really objects to paying $50/hour to have a $1000 rig repaired, that’s not true of a $50-100 kit. I’ve had some good people doing repair work for me, but it’s just not economically viable. Neither can I do the work in a timely manner. Therefore, and effectively immediately, I will not be accepting returns for troubleshooting/repair.

It’s not clear to me at this point if I’ll release any additional product offerings. Although I love the creative process involved in a new design, everything that follows is now just ‘work’.   Along the way, I lost the ‘hobby’ aspect of ham radio. I have not been on the air in almost 5 years. I want my hobby back!

I’ve finished our home here in the woods of New Hampshire, and it’s time for me to move on to other interests.  I’ve still got a garage/barn to build, a garden that grows larger each year, and a wealth of outdoor activities I can’t seem to find the time for. Retirement is clearly not for the faint-of-heart!

I’ll continue to sell RockMites forever, apparently.  Demand is still brisk, with more than 8000 of them out there so far. Ongoing activity for the RockMite as well as support for ‘legacy’ kits occupies me for 2-3 hours each day.  At this stage of my life, that’s ‘enough’.

73- Dave Benson, K1SWL

19 November 2012"

The Heathkit Lunchbox on 75m AM

K6KWQ has just built a Small Wonders Lab "Retro-75" QRP AM transceiver kit into an old Heathkit HW30 (Lunchbox) case. The Retro-75 puts out 2.5W AM on 80/75m and is a nice way of getting back on AM on the band. AM is quite popular in the UK with stations active around 3615kHz.  Dick has made a very neat job of re-labelling the old Heathkit box so it looks like a genuine Heathkit rig, but for 75m AM.

New 80m AM transceiver kit from Small Wonder Labs

Dave Benson K1SWL has produced a QRP 80m AM rig with a crystal controlled TX and 50kHz tunable receiver. Full details at http://smallwonderlabs.com/Retro-75.htm including a PDF builders guide. There is also a Yahoo Group at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SWLRetro75/