One other tool I found essential - and I don¹t recall if anyone has mentioned this yet - is a hand-held magnifying glass with built-in illumination.
There are at least two kinds of occasions when this could be important. One is those few places in which the soldered leads on a small board have to be nibbled down to avoid contact with an overlying metallic part (the instructions specify these points.) The glass helps greatly in assuring that the clearance actually exists. The other are the more numerous places in which the boards and other components are connected with multi-pin connector blocks, at least some of which could be (I think) connected with sideways displacement, or not fully inserted at all. I used the glass to inspect every one of them from every possible angle before going on. Once the whole assembly is complete it would be annoying at best to identify an error like that. In my experience (loaded K3, KPA500, KAT500, P3 and KX3) the only step I found really difficult was inserting the K3¹s sub receiver. Three hands with fingers 2 mm wide and eight inches long would have helped. I have but two, shorter and stubbier than that. What I found worked best was, after unsuccessful attempt number five, quit for the night and have a drink. Ted, KN1CBR ______________________________________________________________ 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 Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
