I'll chime in too. I've done plenty of small SMT at work and I do have a stereo microscope and suitable tools at home. I'd potentially try the toaster oven reflow technique but mainly just to see if it works. Paste solder is not my friend....
On the other hand, I'd say it was easily worth a $50 surcharge to have a board house do it for me. As reference, the DG8SAQ VNWA was originally a kit but is now only available assembled and tested, and I think that was less than $100 more. For a potentially high volume project, the FunCube dongle is professionally assembled and then tested and repaired by the club volunteers before being assembled and shipped. If some one or a group is going to create parts kits for the project, you will find it takes a lot of time that might otherwise be used for testing the assembled boards coming back from the board house. Please note that any $$$ figures are just a guess, not from any Purchasing knowledge. I've never dealt with a board house but I know short runs will be expensive due to setup time. I don't want to throw cold water on the project because I think these sorts of projects are the best part of what ham radio is. I've always been a techie more than a PTT pusher.... I have a couple SoftRock kits, and I think there are a set of boards for a Scottie's Spec-an somewhere around the house.... But I bought the VNWA assembled. I'll certainly keep reading and will be interested to see where the project goes. 73, Doug Reed, N0NAS. _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
