wackyvorlon wrote:

On Dec 29, 3:37 pm, Dan Andersson wrote:
Besides... We have been using SMD's since the early eighties now so stop
whinging over it, adapt! They wont go away and they actually improve most
RF designs!

I've seen some suggestions go around that are very similar to hot-air
rework. I just wanted to mention that SparkFun electronics sells some
rework stations cheaply, and has useful tutorials on soldering SMD
parts. Their site: http://www.sparkfun.com

When you have a proper pc board smt is easy (once you've mastered the
new soldering techniques. I had no problem getting the AD9851 onto the
board. I think the microscopic hairs I'm seeing are a result of using
the solder braid wick. I may have not heated it enough and pulled it
off too soon leaving solder hairs behind. Flux sure does help, and I'll
use plenty when I solder the next few smt ic's down.

I have some smt mounting boards that allow mixing smt parts with through
hole on 100 mil grid proto boards. I fear that the extra long leads
this adds to the smt parts will make rf performance a problem,
especially with 100-400mhz clock signals to the dds chips (AD9951).
I've heard of people designing their own pc boards using laser printer
output and iron on toner for resit. I've tried this before but with
'bleeding' of the toner during application I don't think I can get
better than 50 mil trace separation. Also I've had bad luck etching
boards with very thin traces, the traces get etched away before larger
areas of copper are finished etching. If I try designing boards for SMT
parts I'll probably have to farm them out to a professional house, but
this can be expensive for making but one board. (Unless you plan on
writing a QST article and selling the extra boards....).