I disagree that Surface Mount Technology has taken kit building out of the hands of most hams. Yes, it is not a task for the sloppy builder, or for those who do not have good hand and small muscle control - you must hold those small parts in the proper place while soldering, but kits designed with 1206 or even 0802 size components are not a major undertaking. Surface Mount is easier and faster to assemble than through-hole components -there are no leads to clip, and all the soldering is on one side of the board (at any one time). Yes, care must be exercised - holding the component too tightly in tweezers can launch it into remote corners where only the vacuum cleaner can find it, so a gentle touch is required.
For those who cannot place the parts precisely, the solder paste and "toaster oven" techniques will work just fine, when heated to the proper temperature, the parts simply float into position. It is a wonder to see the results. OK, with the "aging of ham radio", there may be some problems, but that is an individual problem. I am 71 1/2 years old and currently have no problem with SMD construction, but that may change as the years go by, but if I am still able to put through-hole components in the correct location, I should be able to deal equally well with Surface Mount devices. Give it a try, it is not difficult at all, just different than thru-hole construction. 73, Don W3FPR On 9/9/2011 8:25 PM, Tony Estep wrote: > On Fri, Sep 9, 2011 at 12:34 PM, Edward R. Cole<[email protected]> wrote: > >> ... Surface-mount technology has taken kit building out >> most hams hands... > ============= > I understand why Ed says this, but really SMT is not so scary. Many > thousands of Softrock kits have been sold, and they are still selling at the > rate of over 1000 per year. I built one, and it was lots of fun and not > hard. I started with many trepidations, but the info on the Softrock sites > told me everything I needed to know, and it worked the first time. > ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
