[Elecraft] Wayne on KNBx

[Mike Morrow]

Eric wrote:

>Maybe many hams don't consider building with SMTs relaxing or fun although
>THEY CAN DO IT. It may not be that hard, but for many it is not much FUN.
>
>snip many other good points
>
>Maybe we forget that SMTs were developed for MACHINE assembly, not hand
>assembly.
>
>snip many more good points
>
>I might as well get one built better than hand assembly by some machine.


Hi Eric,

You make many excellent and well-stated points.  I agree with every one of
them.

But watch out for the ire of the "wage holy war for SMT" folks out there who
will imply that you're reactionary, ignorant, stupid, out of date, out of
step, lazy, not properly motivated, unskilled, etc. because you won't do
"SMT."

I love kit SMT PCBs...as long as the SMT parts have been machine
pre-assembled on the PCB before I have to put other parts on the PCB
(example...MFJ Cub QRP kits).   That's the appropriate and intended use of
SMT technology.

Any kit that requires manual SMT application above one or two large parts is
a kludge design that I would *never* buy under any circumstance.

73,
Mike / KK5F