Dave, Most parts to do "leaded component" HB are easily available, just look at Mouser or Digikey, or Newark or Allied, or many other major distributors. It is rare not to find what is needed. If you are working from an older parts list, you may encounter some difficulty in that the stated part numbers are not available - mostly because of the switch to ROHS compliance a few years ago. Many distributors changed their part numbers to be able to distinguish between the new RoHS compliant parts and the older non-compliant equivalents.
You don't even need an etched PC board to do HB - just a piece of single or double sided PC board material will provide the platform for either Wes Hayward's (W7ZOI) 'Ugly construction' or Manhatten construction techniques - a good solid ground plane is produced with both these methods, so they are ideal for RF work, DIP or SMD ICs can be used, mounted either 'dead-bug' style (glued upside down on the board), or you can purchase "carrier boards" for these from QRPme, or make your own carrier boards from small pieces of PC board with a series of cuts with spacing to match the leads of the device. The nice thing about either ugly construction or Manhatten construction is that it lends itself to making changes in the design easily, so a lot of experimenting can be done at very low cost. Also with Manhatten construction, you can do a mix of SMD and leaded passive components if desired. Since SMD capacitors usually have lower lead inductance than leaded equivalents, it is easier to produce a repeatable design at VHF and/or UHF with those construction methods. Yes, more and more available small kit boards are being made available for SMD components, but if you are doing "from scratch" homebrew, or following someone else's schematic and doing your own physical layout, you will find Manhatten construction can use your pick of either leaded or SMD components, you get to decide. HB is not dead, and does not need to use SMD components. 73, Don W3FPR On 9/11/2011 12:15 PM, Dave KK7SS wrote: > Ed, > > I beg to differ on one point > >>> So SMT did not take it from hams - >>> the hams took HB out of hamradio. > In my opinion, what took the 'HB' out of Ham radio was the decline in > descrete parts that you could see and handle. > I think that the electronics industries ubiquitous use of SMTs, LSI's, GPA's > etc. caused the decline in demand in manufacturing of the more expensive and > labor intensive items like tubes, variable caps, resistors. etc. > > Add PCB's and flow soldering to the equation and it became no longer > cost-effective to manufacture parts for a relatively small private(?) market. > > 73 de > > -- > Dave G KK7SS > Richland, WA > > '59 Morris Minor 1000 - working on it.. > '65 Sprite - running with a bad valve guide :( > '76 Midget - co-owned with #4 Son :) > '06 Honda Civic Hybrid > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
