Building a ham radio transceiver:ATS3B by Steven Weber KD1JV

I am not a very experienced builder, but I am trying to tackle a rather sophisticated and miniaturized kit developed by Steven Weber in New Hampshire. You can see more about it if you google ATS-3. If you are patient, you can get your own.

The first part of the video is before heating the board with a Hobby Lobby heat embossing tool with the board sitting on a common coffee cup heater. The second half of the video is AFTER heating and flowing the solder paste. Note the solder bridges on the smallest of the ICs--which I didn't have luck wicking, so I scraped it open between the pins. (Knock on wood.)
So ahead: finishing it, testing it, getting on the air, and putting it in some enclosure. Whoo hoo!
More photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonathancharles/sets/72157602077258104/

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• QRP
• ATS3B
• KC7FYS
• KD1JV
• Sprint
• ATSprint
• reflow
• soldering
• hot
• air
• hobby
• lobby
• embosser
• heat
• ham
• radio
• CW

[poikaa3]

I assembled the ATS-3A, using a low wattage pencil and it turned out fine! High magnification and taking my time the whole kit went together in two days and was running proper right off the get go! The DDS chip was difficult because the legs were so fine and close, but one by one I did it! Great kit! 72 Rod KB8DNS

[kc7fys]

@poikaa3 Yes, I have heard of people making this kit with all kinds of soldering tools. I'm not entirely sure, but most modern soldering is done with hot air reflow methods--most hi fi equipment, communications equipment, and computers--but there are still people melting solder with a secondary source like another hot piece of steel. I prefer air for small stuff like this, just to eliminate the guesswork.

[Manu404]

you have some bad soldering point but anyway this is nice ^^

why haven't you used this technic : watch?v=wQXhny3R7lk

instead of soldering each legs one by one ?

[TheHappyWhaleshark]

LoL i thought you were making it out of ham

[darynsax]

Well done bud ,this is what the radio hobby is all about ,giving it a go and we all have to start somewhere

[kc7fys]

I know guys who did this board with a soldering iron, and didn't mess it up. I don't see any reason to use that method--except if you associate "soldering" with a hot iron. Hot air did it just great. Thanks for the comment.

[RetroRepair]

I think CIrcuitGuy might be trying to show off. This method is almost required for a board that dense. I couldn't imagine how long it'd take to solder all that up by hand. Came out great too.

Also, 5 stars for singing loved ones :-D

[kc7fys]

You certainly could be right. I think there are merits to each method. In this case, the extreme small size and need for precision took me to paste. I was surprised at the ease of use, and every part is perfectly centered on the fillet by surface tension.

Nothing beats an iron, however, in most cases.

[CircuitGuy75]

It looks like a lot more work than soldering the parts with a fine-tip iron, but I've never tried that method. When I first learned to solder SMT 10 years ago, I thought it would be harder than through-hole, and now I think it's easier; so it's possible there's a better way to stuff an SMT board than what I do.

[kc7fys]

Because of the size of this device, the multitude of tiny specks of parts and minuscule pins. Using solder paste was a much more reliable way to make sure they all had reliable joints. I was impressed--and with so little heat. I might have destroyed many of the parts with a conventional iron. That's why I used the Cash Olson method with this particular SMD device. I used a conventional iron plenty, too--for the through-hold parts and etc.