Mine, 40M- QCX+, has been sitting for a few months but no longer...
?I started with a bare board yesterday, working through the construction book which begins by winding the T1 transformer. That's a heck of a thing to do with carpal tunnel syndrome, arthritis, and crappy vision, none of which makes me ready for the grave yet but slowing down is not an option I can ignore any longer. I did actually enjoy winding this. It's a matter of attitude and attention to details I suppose. So the leads from these windings were scraped with an Xacto knife and then tinned/soldered in place. This is probably one of the easiest to clean and solder copper wires I've worked with over the years. Good stuff right there.
A side note for folks: be careful using solvents to try and melt away insulation. Some of them will destroy a good inductor, and the wife's carpeting too if you spill it, via capillary action and melt away more than you expected.?
I have a fixed temp Weller soldering station that makes quick work of the soldering on this project. Even when landing on these ground planes it just takes another second. A wet sponge and re-tin and on to the next. I cannot over-stress the usefulness, actually the need, to purchase and maintain the best tools you can get. A quality soldering station and learning how to use it goes a long way in our hobby/field. Of course you all know this already.
I rescued a really nice extruded chassis, several different kinds actually, from the remelt bin at work. I'm the controls maniac for an aluminum extrusion company so I get to cheat on the cheap. The QCX+ and some other prototype boards I have fit right in the extrusion slots perfectly. I'll make some nice face and back plates too. I was going to cheat and buy one of those fancy all band all mode commercial units from the big names but I can hear my brother right now telling me to build my rigs, and LEARN MORSE CODE, which I am doing finally. (that's a long story unto itself) I still can't believe they dropped the code requirements for the licenses.?
Well, the rest of these components are not going to populate this board by themselves, a few more resistors and on to the larger components. So the iron will be warming shortly, but MORE COFFEE first.
I love the smell of rosin core solder in the morning, smells like victory.
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