[Elecraft] Help with T1

[cstoverva at aol.com]

Eric,

How did you make out with your T1?  Have you finished it?  Does it work?  I read your thread with interest because I had just ordered a T1 myself.  

I just ran into the same soldering difficulty with relays K9-K15.  I'm no dummy with a soldering iron either.  I've built a K1, two K2s, W1, several Elecraft mini kits, Rock-Mites, and a few OHR kits.  

Removing several feet of the Kester 66/44 I'm using didn't help.  What seemed to work for me is to melt a big blob on the tip of the iron until I could see a good build up of flux.  Then wipe it clean and hit the solder pad.  Still not easy, but it worked.  By the way I can use the same piece of solder on any other connection and solder flows just fine.  I don't think it's a bad section of solder as some have suggested.  Yes, it seems to be lack of flux, but it seems that just those pads on k9-K15 need more flux for some reason. 

We'll see if it works when I complete the kit.  

Thought you'd be interested in my experience.

73,

Chuck K4QS