I am looking into making a kit based on the Small Wonder Labs Rockmite
(http://smallwonderlabs.com/Rockmite.htm) designed to be a wearable
short-range CW rig. My thought is to be able to wear it on an armband
like joggers do with iPods. Anyway, I need to find some pretty
specific parts, but I am having trouble finding them on Mouser, etc. I
was wondering if perhaps a more experienced parts-hunter might kindly
assist me in locating these.

My plan is to have everything except the earbud fit into/onto the
chassis- 9V battery, telescoping/rubber duck antenna, and two
pushbuttons for the key. Here is my list of parts that I need help
with:

* 'key'- Rather than have paddles that stick out, I think it would be
cool to use two pushbuttons on the top of the case, oriented so that
you can press them while it's strapped to your other arm. My problem
is that I need really shallow switch housings- my hope is to put this
inside a pair of altoids tins attached back to back, and I'd really
really like it if the key was more or less flush with the top of the
chassis. I tried to surf Mouser, but there are kajillions out there
and I can't seem to find something like this.

* control switch- see comments about about key, but I wouldn't mind if
this stuck out a tiny bit.

* antenna- OK, so the final transistor is a 2222 at less than 1/2W.
Does impedance mismatch even matter here? The obvious problem here is
that I'm using HF... maybe I should use a ferrite loop? Can I even
transmit on that? I'm really not looking for long distance here- maybe
a mile or two. Any suggestions?

* volume/power - I was thinking of using Mouser 311-170-1-1M for the
audio pot / power switch, but might there be a part that would be
easier to mount? I'm guessing not, since I really want it to be a
thumbwheel, but I thought I'd ask.

* frequency- Finally, since I'm not designing this system to be used
long-range, maybe I should pick a really obscure frequency? What do
you think? On one hand, if I used something in 80M, I would be
unlikely ever to interfere with anybody, but that makes the antenna
even more useless! Or should I pick 20M, maybe in the phone band?
Please don't doubt that I will be very careful to ID legally and make
sure to listen first, etc. But I just wanted to check...


Thank you for your time,
Ross Tucker, NS7F