[Elecraft] Surface Mount tech et. al.

[Martin AC6RM]

I'm a stagnant amateur with very little electronics experience (other than
a little PIC programming and breadboarding).  The allure of the K2 was its
world-class receiver and the chance to fiddle.  I've taken things like
VFOs, BFOs, band-pass filters and IFs for granted way, way too long.

I got a little bit more than I bargained for because things aren't working
at the second alignment section and I'm looking at doing the very first RF
signal tracing I've ever done.  I'm determined to figure out what I
screwed up; I'll probably need more list member help.

Somehow it was meant to be this way -- can't explain it, but it feels good
to be doing it, and I feel quite revitalized.  Plugging pre-constructed
cards in to a cage may be the way we're headed, and there may be a market
for that (the computer self-builder crowd?), but for me the K2 is the
perfect gradient -- done the computer build thing, done the plug'n'play
rig-in-a-box thing.

So whereas I don't disagree that SM may be progress, or that there'd be a
market for it, in my mind there will always be a market for the K2 the way
that it is.

73, Martin

>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: tlogan7@cox.net
>
>> Could this mean  that the next level of Elecraft evolution
>> could be based on SM technology and utilize some of the Orion
>> type concepts?
>
> I would really *like* to see the introduction of kits with many
> surface mount parts AS LONG AS THOSE PARTS ARE PRE-ASSEMBLED
> on the PCB.  SM parts are not designed for Human installation
> except in the most limited and (to me) trying of circumstances.
> Pre-assembled SM parts would make the kit parts inventory process
> easier, reduce the amount of time spent in the (to me) mind-numbing
> process of sticking fixed-value resistors and capacitors on a
> PCB for hours at a time, reduce the opportunity for builder error, and
> result in a product that would likely be more reliable.
>
> The MFJ Cub is the only kit available that has (to me) a nearly
> ideal proportion of parts that are pre-assembled to parts that
> must be assembled to the PCB.  The driver transistor and a few
> other parts should not have been SM components, but overall the
> hybrid concept is pretty good in the MFJ Cub.
>
> Were only a few SM parts required to be assembled, as on the
> S.W.L. DSW or Rock-Mite, that would be OK.  But any kit that
> would require more than that would definitely NOT be a kit in
> which I'd be interested.
>
> Mike / KK5F
>
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