[Elecraft] crystal grounding

[Indy]

How i DID it!!! by young Frankenstein ;-)

Your mission, ground them twice with the thickest and shortest wire =
possible while not destroying the crystal in the process.  this is how I =
did it, no guarantees if anyone else were to do it... no vises, no fancy =
tools, just a little thought

1) 600 grit sand paper, sanded the side of the crystals.  i did not tin =
them.  Once scruffed up they tin instantly anyway.

2) soldered vertical bare wires in the circuit board ground holes

3) soldered crystals in place on circuit board

4)  pushed top of wire toward crystal until it touched, but it won't =
stay against the crystal, springs back a little

5)  slid screw driver down wire from the top, while pushing it against =
crystal, now it stays in contact with the crystal.  made sure that the =
grounding wire on the SSB board side is at least an eighth of an inch =
down from the top of the crystal, then it won't interfere with SSB board

6)  solder the top of the wire to the crystal

7)  then, in one swift motion, draw iron and solder down the side of the =
crystal along wire and off of it.  iron is in contact low on the crystal =
for tenths of a second at most.

grounding wire ends up well shorter than a quarter of an inch.

this is a high point of the entire build.  My filter skirts are straight =
down to the noise floor, no convex dish at all, and thank you to the two =
engineers who pioneered this approach to get rid of the blow-by, KI6WX =
and the other was Kevin, but I forget his call, thank you guys for so =
improving the performance of these filters!  they deserve the credit

GL

Fred
KT5X
W5YA/qrp
K2 # 700

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