[Elecraft] Finger Dimple

[Stan Rife]

	I finished the Front Panel yesterday (the Control board the day
before). This thing is really moving along quicker than I thought. Of
course, that is probably 16-20 hours total for those two days.=20
	Anybody else accidentally hit one or two of the key caps with the
soldering pencil? I barely touched the corners of S-13 and S-16. I think =
the
key cap installation step should be moved to just before the =
installation of
the board into the Front Panel. This would minimize the problem. Of =
course,
then there would be the possibility of hitting one of the shafts on the
buttons themselves. I guess a key cap is much more easily replaced than =
the
button itself...that is for sure. Also I noticed that my button caps =
don't
seem to be centered in the holes for S-7 thru S-16. S-1 thru -S6 look ok =
but
the latter are down in the bottom of the holes. Has anyone else seen =
this?
It's not that bad, but I figured a kit of this quality, everything would =
be
near perfect. S-7 thru S-16 are all uniform as far as the locations in =
the
holes...just at the bottom of the holes instead of looking centered. The
switches went in fine and everything lined up with the spacing tool.
Eyeballing the switches after soldering them all in place, everything =
looked
spot on.
	I also had a question about the VFO knob. The documentation says to
have the knob just touching the felt washer so the knob will not drift
slightly after it has quit spinning. My impression of this is that this
thing potentially spins pretty freely. This is not the case with mine. =
It
does not spin freely at all. It turns pretty easy and smooth with a =
slight
drag feeling. I can't see having to worry about knob drift the way this =
one
feels at this time. Will this loosen up over time? I adjusted it =
(eyeball)
so that it is just touching the felt washer.
	By the way, the illusive C38 (681) on the Control board finally
showed up in the packaging. It was stuck to the back of the anti-static =
foam
that the chips were on. Scott, if you are listening, don't send the 681,
Thanks.
=20

Stan Rife
WD5EWA
Houston, TX
=20