[Elecraft] KFL1-4 Trimmer Cap Replacement

[lhlousek]

I replaced all the trimmers on my KFL-4 with no difficulty.  It was well worth the effort because my K1 would lose more
than half its power on some bands with a ambient temp decrease of only 10 F (75 to 65 F) with the old caps.  The new
caps totally eliminated the temp sensitivity of the power output over the range 40F to 100F.

I left all the solder on, heated one leg at a time, and used a dental pick to pull up one side of the trimmer at a time
being very careful to insure that the solder was melted on both sides of the PCB before pulling. I then used a solder
sucker to remove the solder.

From past experience, I feel that if you use solder wick to remove the solder first, you lessen the heat conductivity to
the top of the PCB and create a greater risk of damaging the PCB.  It also works well to heat the joint from the same
side you are pulling if you can get the iron in there.

Obviously this method works only when you can remove one lead at a time either because of the type of component or
because you have clipped all the leads.


Lou W7DZN