Harold B Mandel wrote:
> Mostly ham radio was for the fun of it. The majority of the hams I've
> known
> through the years got more enjoyment tinkering than talking. Amplifier
> kits
> and homebrewed units are a real sense of mechanical accomplishment.
I do wonder with the increased use of surface mount components, this is
going to become more and more difficult in years to come. Many chips are
now only available surface mount. Some of them having spacing between
the connections of under 0.3 mm, making hand soldering a complete
impossibility. On some chips, the solder connections are actually below
the device, making it impossible to get a soldering iron to them.
Obviously the way devices are packaged are driven by the method that
suits mass production, not a few home users.
There was an article in an IEE (Institute of Electrical Engineers)
publication recently about new solders that are lead free. Apparently an
EEC (or whatever) directive has decided lead has to be removed from
solders by the year 2005 or whatever it was. Apparently the industry has
not really developed the solders and techniques yet. The impression
given was that it was not on course to have done so by the date lead has
to be removed from solder. I don't know how this will affect
hand-soldering, but clearly if one needs to solder items in an oxygen
free atmosphere (for example), that will be almost impossible for home
users.
The precision with which electronic components can be automatically
placed by robots has increased dramatically in the last 15 years, but
the fingers don't seem to have developed much during the same period.
Human evolution is a bit slower.
It is clearly almost impossible for an amateur to repair commercially
produced radio equipment. I don't think it will be too long before it
will be hard for him to make his own. Amplifiers will perhaps remain an
exception to this, although they will I'm sure get more difficult to
build.
--
Dr. David Kirkby,
Senior Research Fellow,
Department of Medical Physics,
University College London,
11-20 Capper St, London, WC1E 6JA.
Website: http://www.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/~davek
Author of 'atlc' http://atlc.sourceforge.net/
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