[Amps] RE: Solid State HF amps and kits

[Ian White, G3SEK]

Steve Thompson wrote:
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: PAUL HEWITT <wd7s@att.net>
>To: Steve Katz <stevek@jmr.com>; 'WYsixK' <wy6k@yahoo.com>; 'Jim Strohm'
><jstrohm@texas.net>; amps@contesting.com <amps@contesting.com>
>Date: 19 April 2002 17:45
>Subject: RE: [Amps] RE: Solid State HF amps and kits
>
>
>>Michael
>>You might also try this link for small
>>quantity boards.
>>http://www.apcircuits.com/  Their P1
>>service (two sided FR4) is very
>>reasonable if you stick to their "free"
>>drill sizes
>
>I've not tried the service, but www.pcb-pool.com looks to have an
>interesting offer for prototyping.
>
Also http://www.olimex.com/pcb/ have low-cost offers for particular 
board sizes, so long as you want double-sided FR4 with top-side 
component ID and bottom-side solder mask - which many people do.

There are probably many other "consolidator" companies like them, who 
include your board(s) on very large panels that they have made at a very 
low price. They then slice and dice the panels, and pass (some of) the 
saving back to you.

However, I haven't tried any of these because my regular supplier has 
very low setup costs. Starting from Gerber files and drilling files - 
standard output from any PCB software - they charge about $17 per shot 
for photoplotting, so that's about $50 total for two track sides plus 
component ID. They make no separate drill setup charge. Some companies 
charge for each drill size, some only charge for more than 8 different 
sizes (the maximum the machine can hold, so more means stopping and 
re-loading) while others have a standard set of sizes and only charge 
for anything different.

No doubt I'm paying this particular supplier a little more for the 
actual boards to make up for the very low setup charges... but I' rather 
have it that way because it encourages new development. A $500 setup 
charge is sheer piracy.


-- 
73 from Ian G3SEK          Editor, 'The VHF/UHF DX Book'
                           'In Practice' columnist for RadCom (RSGB)
New e-mail: g3sek@ifwtech.co.uk
New website: http://www.ifwtech.co.uk/g3sek