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Wednesday 7 January 2009

MKARS 80m progress


In the weeks just before xmas managed a few days in the shack melting solder and the 80m MKARS SSB tcvr was one such project, I posted about it elsewhere on this blog http://m1kta-qrp.blogspot.com/2008/11/mkars-80m-tcvr.html.



These were taken just after completing the first of the component bags as all the discrete C have been fitted. What was nice was the PCB holes actually corresponded to the component sizes.
Lots of praise to the MKARS guys for the kitting for this. And a very big hint for kit producers as this makes construction so very much simpler as you do not have to get creative bending 2.5mm C legs as the PCB has 5mm spaced holes or fitting 1/4W R upright as horzontal holes are more suited to 1/8W or short body 1/4W resistors.
As you can see I have used one of Doug Hendricks PCB Vice's (when I travel it is part of the /P homebrew bench) and it is great for this sort of construction where you can fit simply loads of components and then tilt the board over and solder one leg of each to hold them in place before reversing the PCB and finishing the job. It makes construction very quick and probably explains why I manage to complete the boards rapidly.
The board is fully populated now (the shack is a tad cold right now being just below freezing so no photo just yet) and I am waiting to drill the provided chassis. I may yet make the modifications and put it into a larger case.