[Elecraft] New Elecraft stuff...

[Vic K2VCO]

Brett Gazdzinski wrote:
> I hope Elecraft continues to make new kits, not the screw it together type 
> like the K3, but the kits you build from a big pile of parts.
> After all, the surface mount stuff will kill any real kit building before 
> you know it, and I have built all the Elecraft kits, some twice.

I know how you feel. I recently bought a W1 wattmeter. I sort of needed another wattmeter, 
but really I wanted to sit down, turn on some classical music, and solder parts to a neat 
little board. I still get a kick when something I build works, even if it is a 
well-planned kit!

I've built some stuff with surface mount parts. It's not so hard, although it's annoying 
when something goes flying. They seem to enter the 4th dimension before landing. I always 
keep some surface-mount diodes, resistors, and caps handy; hopefully the one that vanishes 
will be a common one.

One thing that Elecraft can do is supply boards with multi-pin surface-mount parts already 
attached, and you can add through-hole components to finish it. They didn't do this with 
the K3 because of the difficulty of testing the partially-populated boards -- at least, I 
think this was the reason -- but it's practical with simpler kits.
-- 
73,
Vic, K2VCO
Fresno CA
http://www.qsl.net/k2vco