[Elecraft] crystal grounding

[Don Brown]

Hi

This is the way I ground the crystals on the 13 or so K2/K1's I have built.
However I have not found it necessary to sand or scrape the crystal cans. I
lay the soldering iron tip on the crystal next to and parallel to the ground
wire and feed a little solder then quickly move to the other side of the
wire and feed a little more solder and I get a nice shiny flow down the side
of the can. If you used the screwdriver to position the wire against the can
as described below the joint will look great. Do only one side of each
crystal at a time so it can cool then go back and do the other side. Do not
try to flow the solder all the way to the bottom of the can. I use Kester
63/37 #245 flux core solder although #44 flux core should work also. I am
using a Weller WES-50 iron with a ETA tip set to 750 degrees F.

Don Brown
KD5NDB


----- Original Message -----
From: "Indy" <kt5x@cnsp.com>
To: <elecraft@mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Friday, March 14, 2003 10:33 PM
Subject: [Elecraft] crystal grounding


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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