[Elecraft] Board trace images

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

I can appreciate your sense of esthetics, Kevin, but to suggest that
jumpered boards are one bit "fragile" is not accurate. Not in any =
practical
sense, anyway.=20

Having been involved with building one-off prototypes of everything from
Ampex quad-head VCR's for the broadcast industry that were hauled around =
in
trucks to radar systems for the Air Force, I've seen countless pc boards =
go
into service in the field covered with cut traces and jumpers. Sometimes
they had whole added circuits built sort of like what's now called
"Manhattan" style hanging on the side. Some of them flew thousands of =
hours
- even in tooth-rattling piston-engined reconnaissance aircraft - and I
never saw one that failed because the mods were "fragile".=20

Personally, I have had a lot of my own gear with jumpered boards that
rattled around in my car for decades without failure. Shoot, I have had =
a
LOT of gear without a single PC board! <G>. Just a bunch of wires =
soldered
to terminals and to the sockets for all the vacuum tubes. When those =
failed,
it was most often a tube - sometimes a tube that was literally vibrated =
out
of its socket.=20

My point is that, done right, there is no significant loss of =
reliability or
stability when cutting and patching PC board traces.=20

Does my gear with the jumpers look like something that was replicated by =
the
thousands by Robots at a factory? Of course not. It looks like a "work =
in
progress", which it is.=20

To you it may be a kludge, to me it's a thing of beauty!=20

And if you have an 'original' that's fine too.=20

My point is that if were going to bet on one of our rigs breaking down, =
I
wouldn't give odds that it'll be the modified one that goes first.

Ron AC7AC


-----Original Message-----
Howdy Jim,
    I built K2 #2511 a few years ago and have not changed a thing.  I've =

seen the inside of electronics with traces cut and jumpers all over the=20
place and all I think is, "What a kluge!"  If I ever feel the urge to do =

the mods I'll get rid of faithful old #2511 and build a new one with the =

mods built in so they are not so fragile.  ...
    73,
       Kevin.