The QRPer Board

At first I thought it was about ground conditions on stone... its about crystals, isn't it..........

I've never heard of "rock lock" but my understanding of "rock bound" is that the person is using a radio that has a crystal for a specific frequency (for example a lot of the pixie kits come with a crystal for 7.023MHz) and are not frequency agile, hence "rock bound" to that specific frequency.

It is my understanding that some of the older rigs in the pre-VFO days had a spot where the crystal would plug in to the front of the rig (I've seen some listed on various swap sites in the FT-243 and other form factors) and the operator would change frequency by unplugging one crystal and plugging in another. I believe many operators would have a rather large collection of crystals to increase the number of frequencies available to them.

Hope this helps. It's not something I have experience with and if I'm mistaken hopefully someone will jump in here and add to or correct what I've said.

fascinating! I think that explains what I was looking for, thanks! "Rock Locked" was something I saw on a pota self-spot from an activator a few weeks ago. They were in AZ and my brain jumped to ground conditions and it only just occurred to me that it could mean T/Rx is limited by the crystal in the radio.

Ah the memories! I made a crystal holder for my dad back in 4th grade. Just an 8" 1x2 with his call woodburned on the front and holes drilled in the top to plug your crystals in.

Novice class operators were required to use crystals back in the bad old days. My Heathkit HW-7 has a socket right on the front panel. But it also has a VFO and 20 meters for when you upgraded. It was one of the first commercial QRP rigs.

Things sure have changed!

73 de Rick N8TGQ