23 Jan
2012
23 Jan
'12
5:44 a.m.
On 01/23/2012 12:30 AM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
Indeed. :) I bet that receiver was a work of art; I hope it's still
around somewhere.
I learned to solder in the late 1970s; did a bit of tie strips but
mostly perf board and through-hole PCBs. (home-etched and kits) It's
weird...I enjoy soldering, and I guess I still like through-hole
soldering as much as I used to, but SMT is just so much faster and
easier that I groan when I get to the inevitable through-hole connectors
and such.
I came to
like SMT work far, far more than through-hole very shortly
after that, though. Now I dread through-hole; it just takes too damn
long and is generally a pain compared to SMT.
Heh. Must be a generational thing. I remember many years ago, my
late father wanting to recapture some of his experiences and
construct his own receiver. So he went to the local electronics
dealer and came back with some 14AWG bus wire, a spool of 24AWG
magnet (enambeled) wire, a 1G4G and an Eby surface-mount octal socket
(he was upset when he discovered that UV201s were no longer made), a
No. 6 dry cell and a couple of 45V "B" batteries. He'd already
selected and shellacked a nice pine board and was working on
fabricating his own book-type "condenser". It worked, and I suppose
it was a real work of art, but I thought the use of bare #24 wire was
*so* retro and campy, compared my up-to-date use of point-to-point
using hookup wire and tie strips... We're fast coming to a time, I suppose when
through-hole PCB
construction will seem just as dated--and 5V logic will seem
curiously power-hungry although RTL was 3V, so at least we've been
here before.
Very true.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
New Kensington, PA