To be able to build my amateur radio equipment I have to solder electronic components. That´s a basic fact. :-) My experience so far with soldering has been coax cables and wires from torroids to be soldered to connectors, that is impedance transformers for receiving antennas . For that task a very basic soldering pen has been used.
But if I want to be able to solder small components I have to have something better. I started bidding on nice ones I saw on auction (Weller etc) but they all came up on level I didn´t think it was worth spending. Probably they all are alot better than the one I bought. Time will tell. The one I found cost 600 SEK (~80 US dollar) on the local store Kjell & Co, but it´s atleast equiped with temperature control and the tips can be changed over to smaller ones.
You can see an ancient modem on the bench in the top image for practicing. When I feel compfortable with my soldering skills I will move over to build the Softrock Lite II for 30 meters or maybe I start with an FM receiver kit I got laying around. Before I can get to the SMT components I think I have to get hold of some nice flux.
You have the JBC brand (http://www.jbctools.com/) their classic type soldering irons are very nice. The tips are durable, mine already soldered more than 500g of thin solder (believe me, that's a lot). All other brands I tested are good for the junk yard only. Got mine new for around 40 Eur. The 30w version is more than enough for the most time.
ReplyDelete73 de Ricardo - CT2GQV