[Elecraft] Surface Mount tech; Orion; and K2/100

[Stuart Rohre]

All should remember there is no free lunch.  Smaller more densely packed
parts means less efficient heat removal.  reliability must address thermal
design that might have gone unstudied in a discrete component design.

SMT is only an advantage to economic mass produced items or very high
frequencies where you do not intend to repair the item to the component
level, and are agreeable to swapping an entire board or sub assembly.

Thermal management rears a big head when SMT components are used.
73,
Stuart K5KVH