Steve, there is nothing sacred about the crystal case being grounded. There is no real need to solder it to ground.
It's there for mechanical stability, since the crystal isn't laying flat on the board like it was made to do.
If you leave it hanging in mid air, it will be somewhat more unstable, mostly just more susceptible to vibration being able to modulate the output frequency of the unit (microphonic).
It looks like you can attach a piece of stiff wire to the xtal, and wrap it around the edge of the board to the underside and solder it to the ground plane there.
I left mine hanging in mid air on long lead with nothing securing it because I intend to remove it later to facilitate the DDS install. It runs just fine, even though it's not quite technically correct.
It also looks like you can drill the hole yourself, because it goes to teh ground plane on the backside of the board, there is no problem if the hole placement isn't as precise as the intended hole position was.
Regards,
Art
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At 09:15 PM 10/10/2005, you wrote:
Hi Steve,
Mine has a smaller hole there. If yours doesn't have
one, you should just solder the ground wire to the
crystal lead that goes to ground. It's easy to tell
which one that is by looking at the bottom of the
board.
good luck,
Dave W5DHM
--- steve <swells244@...> wrote:
guys Im finally geting time to start my kit AND Ive
ran into a problem.
Im installing the crystal but Im finding the ground
hole for the case
ground isnt thru the board.There isnt any solder in
it its like it hasnt
been drilled.is this correct?
Steve
KG4JNL
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