[Elecraft] K2 Noise Solved

[Jack Smith]

Don:

I can't find it now, but I remember a column by Robert A. Pease in which 
he left a transistor wrapped around  the business end of a soldering 
iron at 700F over the weekend as an experiment and found that its 
performance specs were still in compliance when he checked it Monday 
morning.

A related issue to tip temperature is that a physically small tip will 
loose too much heat. There's a happy optimum where the tip possesses 
sufficient thermal mass to not cool down when applied to the joint, but 
is sufficiently small for the job.

Jack K8ZOA
>
>
> A word to potential builders - keep the soldering iron temperature 
> greater than 700 deg F (750 is better).  You will not damage anything 
> if the soldering temperature is 800 deg F or below *and* the soldering 
> time is kept short - contrary to popular belief, damage *will* occur 
> with a low iron temperature applied for a long period of time.  Also 
> use a small diameter solder so you can control the amount and watch as 
> the thru-hole is heated, it will wick a bit of solder into the hole 
> when it receives adequate heat, but too much applied solder will mask 
> that process and can hide a bad solder joint.
>
> 73,
> Don W3FPR
>