W.E.A.R.C.

               West Essex Amateur Radio Club, Essex Fells, NJ

                                   an ARRL Special Service Club             

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Mike, WA2QIC's Ham Blog

Page 5

Having learned my lesson on the Control board, this time I set aside my component lead cuttings and sure enough, two jumpers were needed on this board.  All was well, no digging through nasty garbage bags for cut leads this time.  I still say the need for some of these cut leads should be noted in the beginning of the build chapter.

I did have one minor scare - I brushed one of the push buttons (S11 to be exact) with my soldering iron and melted the tip, where the rectangular button covers snap on.  With some careful trimming/re-shaping using a sharp Exacto knife, I managed to salvage the switch.  The button cover snapped on and stayed on and the button functions normally.

The Fronel panel board is now complete up to the SSB add-on.  Since I bought the SSB add-on, that's next.   Here are some pics of the Front Panel build thus far:

Raw PCB at the start - no parts installed yet: 

Here is a pic installing the switches and using the Elecraft provided spacing tool:

   Here is a pic of the component side of the PCB, waiting for the SSB parts:    Here is a pic of the solder side of the PCB, waiting for the SSB parts:  

As you can see in two of the above pics, there are 3 (#4) lock washers protruding beyond the border of the PCB.  Time will tell if this will cause an assembly problem.  I do have a complete Dremel set, and plan to grind the protrusions off if I must.  For now, wait and see.

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   This old Radio