with apologies to Young Frankenstein, "How I Did It!" FWIW, I was one of the first to experiment with this. I developed an approach that worked well for me, and here it is.
Understand, the mission is to minimize the inductance of the connection. The shorter the connection to ground, the less induction. Two wires further reduces this inductance by half. * I did not preattach ground wires to the crystal. Quite the opposite. * I lightly sanded the sides of the crystal case with 1500 grit emory paper from the auto store. This makes it take solder much more QUICKLY. * I pre-mounted the grounding wires to the ground holes, both sides, before inserting crystals, not to the crystals. * Next, crystals were mounted. * the wire was then bent to the crystal, using a flat screw driver to push the wire against the crystal in such a way that it is flat against the side of the crystal all the way down the crystal. I clip off the wire at the top of the crystal, particularly important on the inside so it doesn't interfere with the SSB board which fits very closely. * I put the soldering iron at the top of the crystal, touching wire and crystal, the solder itself on the other side. At the moment it melts, I draw the iron down the crystal, quickly, and off from the crystal, in one stroke. The solder flows right down the wire very quickly making the connection. Have fun! 72, Fred KT5X K2 # 700 _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net 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
