"Joe" wrote in message link.net...
"Tom Bruhns" wrote in message
...
....
Easy enough to use SMT components soldered to a piece of copper-clad
for a ground plane. Just put down the two caps and the shunt resistor
"tombstone" style, ...
Joe: "I don't even know what you mean by 'tombstone style',"

Tombstone style...just solder one end to the copper-clad board, and
the other end sticking up in the air. Looks like a micro-size
tombstone sticking up from the board.

....

Cheers,
Tom

Hi Tom,

Being so new at this, I don't even know what you mean by 'tombstone style',
and it sounds like an awful lot of work to be scoring pcboard with an Xacto
knife to create transmission line effects.

It's really not all that difficult. Just use a ruler to guide the
knife, use a sharp knife, and the strips you want to remove can
usually just be pulled up in one piece (each). Or do it as Ian
suggested, with sticky copper tape.

As Ian wrote, keep lead lengths extremely short, like "zero." He
suggested putting a piece of heavy copper wire through the board where
you want to connect to the ground plane. Another way is to simply
drill a hole through the board and drop an 0805-size surface mount
part into the hole, and solder both ends. A 1/16" hole would work,
but you'd do better to pick a size that just fits the part you want to
use. Not all 0805 parts are quite the same size, but the body lengths
are pretty accurate and work nicely in 1/16" thick board material.
Any of the methods mentioned by Ian and myself will work well, and all
are reasonably easy to implement with a bit of practice and patience.

Cheers,
Tom