<What I do if I can stand the stray capacitance (and I often can) is take <a piece of copperclad for the groundplane. I then stick (double-sided <tape is strong enough) little 'islands' of stripboard, track side up onto <the groundplane. Solder the ICs to the stripboard. Then solder the ground <wires from the strips to the groundplane (as short as possible). That <will anchor the stripboard in place. Decoupling caps go from the power <strip straight to the groundplane, etc. That happens to be an effective way to do it. Works well for RF too. As to proto, I have a few peices of equipment that were deliberately built that way with over 15years on them. With a little care it can be very rugged. Allison