No wonder! I thought it was my iron, or solder. I had similar results but everything soldered ok eventually. I was running my iron at 725 degrees F. I missed that part in the manual. That's what I get for being in a hurry to get started. I'll go back and find that in the manual. Makes sense that it would be thicker though, since the KPA100 board has to deal with a lot more heat than the K2 RF board.
Stan Rife W5EWA Houston, TX K2 S/N 4216 -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of W3FPR - Don Wilhelm Sent: Friday, January 28, 2005 8:41 AM To: Gerhard Schwanz; [email protected] Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Bad KPA100 PCB? Gerhard, I have found the KPA100 is more difficult to solder than other Elecraft kits, but I believe it is bacause that PC board uses thicker copper than the other kits and is especially noticable when soldering to a grounded pad. I increase the temperature on my soldering station to 750 to 800 degrees F. (400 to 430 degrees C.) and have no problem. The KPA100 manual states that a low wattage 800 degree F. soldering iron is required. Try increasing the temperature of your iron. Judging by your photo, I can definitely state that your iron is not hot enough, and the pads that give you the most trouble are the ground points. 73, Don W3FPR ----- Original Message ----- I am just in the process of building my KPA100. And I discover more and more solder points on the PCB where the solder is not accepted. Scraping the pads a bit helps a bit but I don't think this is a solution. Some details. I don't know where in the process it started but right now I'm on page 15 soldering the capacitors. And it's nearly every third hole that doesn't work. The solder sticks to the leads or the iron. I use the same iron and solder as with the other 10 PCBs of elecraft that I have built. I contacted elecraft about this issue but I wanted to ask if others have this problem too? What can I do? 73 Gerhard Schwanz DH3FAW mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.gs-personal.de _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [email protected] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [email protected] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [email protected] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
