Well, you would still be surprised with some of the things you buy.  For
example, some baby monitors such as the Light and Sound monitor from
Fisher Price's transmitter uses crystals believe it or not that still have
sockets, but the receiveuses a PC board.   A couple years ago while at
school I got to take one apart, and managed to get the receiver to do some
strange things, but short of having a smaller screw driver for the
rransmitter it is real easy to move around in there.  Also, with some not
very old 49MHz radios like ooy hTS they are still using crystals, and are
fairly easy tlook around with.





On Thu, 27 Sep 2001, Mike Freeman wrote:

> Some may call me "chicken" but I am *very* leery of soldering on the
> current generation of manufactured gear.  Much of it uses such
> space-saving wrinkles as surface-mount technology and therefore things are
> crammed in so tightly that I can almost guarantee you that I'd ruin
> something in the process of fixing something else or adding some new
> gizmo.  Also when working with etched PC-board, it's not always easy to
> figure out where things go by touch -- those photo templates just don't do
> much for me.
>
> I am more comfortable building things from scratch or from kits.
>
> It's not that I am not adventurous or unwilling to carry on the ham
> tradition of modifying gear etc.  It's just that I believe we're living in
> somewhat of a different age with different building conditions and some of
> this gear is sufficiently expensive that I am unwilling to make it the
> subject of my crispy-critter experimentation.
>
> Mike Freeman <[log in to unmask]>
> Amateur Radio: < K 7 U I J >
>
> On Thu, 27 Sep 2001, JEFFREY MICHAEL KENYON wrote:
>
> > okay, sorry about that, I had an idea come to mind for people who are
> > beginning out soldering, and that could be to try experimenting with those
> > toy walkie talkies, or room monitors or an older cordlers phone or
> > something like that.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Wed, 26 Sep 2001, Brett Winchester wrote:
> >
> > > No, he is not blind.
> > >
> > > Thank You!
> > >
> > > BRETT K WINCHESTER  PM  KD7JN
> > > mailto:[log in to unmask]
> > > http://www.icbvi.state.id.us/brochure/RADIO.HTM=20
> > >
> > > READING SERVICES MANAGER
> > > ICBVI - IDAHO COMMISSION f/t BLIND & VISUALLY IMPAIRED
> > > P O BOX 83720
> > > BOISE IDAHO  83720-0012
> > > 208-334-3220 ext 104 or 103 +7 =3D voice mail non-business hours
> > > fax  208-334-2963
> > >
> > > >>> JEFFREY MICHAEL KENYON <[log in to unmask]> 09/26/01 10:25AM >>>
> > > Is this engineer also blind then?  If so how doew he work on transmitters?
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On Wed, 26 Sep 2001, Brett Winchester wrote:
> > >
> > > > My broadcast engineer has a cool little pencil he got from Fair radio or =
> > > =3D
> > > > something that is about $4.00.  his rationale is that it is cheep enough =
> > > =3D
> > > > that if it gets lost or thrown away it is no great loss.  He keeps  =
> > > these =3D
> > > > for  field work naturally, keeping the variable heat one for bench work.
> > > >
> > > > Thank You!
> > > >
> > > > BRETT K WINCHESTER  PM  KD7JN
> > > > mailto:[log in to unmask]
> > > > http://www.icbvi.state.id.us/brochure/RADIO.HTM=3D20=20
> > > >
> > > > READING SERVICES MANAGER
> > > > ICBVI - IDAHO COMMISSION f/t BLIND & VISUALLY IMPAIRED
> > > > P O BOX 83720
> > > > BOISE IDAHO  83720-0012
> > > > 208-334-3220 ext 104 or 103 +7 =3D3D voice mail non-business hours
> > > > fax  208-334-2963
> > > >
> > > > >>> Butch Bussen <[log in to unmask]> 09/26/01 09:38AM >>>
> > > > What I use is a weller 8200.  It is a dual heat gun.  Fast heat up and
> > > > cool down.  I cna't believe what those things cost these days..  Last =
> > > one
> > > > I bought was almost $50.00
> > > >
> > > > 73s
> > > > Butch      WA0VJR
> > > >
> > >
> >
>