A while back we had a question come up, "What tools should an aspiring ham purchase?" The question was a very good one that is asked by many a newly licensed ham wishing to get started in basic electronics. Amateur Radio is very much a "Do-it-Yourself" hobby. We are the only radio service that the FCC allows to build our own radio equipment. All the other radio services must purchase FCC Type Certified equipment from various manufacturers and vendors. From the start, even the Technician class license is required to demonstrate a basic knowlege of radio electronics and Radio Frequency (RF) safety. That's one of the reasons the FCC grants us much higher power output levels and far more radio spectrum than most radio services.
From installing a 2-meter VHF mobile radio into a car, to setting up an HF station at the house, what are some basic tools every aspiring ham should have on hand?
This is a chance for all the more experienced hams to give their opinions, based upon their years of experience working with radio equipment. What basic tools do you find yourself using all the time? What tools did you wish you had as a newbie, that would have saved hours of time and frustration? What tools or pieces of test equipment have you purchased years later and wondered how you ever got by without them before? I will repost the orginal responses below, but I'm hoping for some new posts from all the "old timers" out there.
Note: This topic was originally posted in "The Swap Meet" section, under "Wanted", with the subject line of "Tools for aspiring hams". Since the topic is of general interest to all new hams, I am reposting it here in the Elmer's section to provide greater visibility. Many thanks to Blair (KF7LXF) for asking the question!
Tools Recommended for New Hams
Tools Recommended for New Hams
73 de
Bruce, KA2ODP/7
Bruce, KA2ODP/7
Re: Tools Recommended for New Hams
My tool box contains a variety of small tools. Several items came from the tool department at Sears. I recommend folks watch the sales flyers that appear in the Sunday paper and sign up for the "Craftsman Club" to get their "members specials". Most of the Craftsman items I purchased on sale, so the price was right. Home Depot and Ace Hardware are also good sources of hand tools here in Great Falls. Look in the Sunday paper for their sales flyers as well. I have found that around Christmas time Home Depot gets a large variety of hand tool kits in for use as "stocking stuffers".
Here are a few ideas:
-Multi-meter: Also called a Volt-Ohm Meter (VOM) because it can measure AC voltage, DC voltage, and resistance values. Sears will periodically have a sale on their Craftsman multi-meters, which usually have a red rubber wrap-around cover that protects it from bumps. On sale a basic model of Craftsman digital multi-meter can cost less than $17, making it hard to pass up. Get one for your tool box and a second one for your Go-Bag. It is hard to troubleshoot a radio problem out in the field if you can't even verify that you have a steady source of 12-volts DC.
Use it to verify that 120 volts AC is going into the radio power supply and 12-volts DC is coming out (to be specific, 13.8 volts DC). Measure the output voltage while the radio is transmitting. If the output voltage falls to 10-11 volts, the power supply regulation has failed. Use only regulated power supplies that will provide a constant 13.8 vdc output regardless of the amperage draw of the radio. A 50-watt VHF (2-meter) mobile radio typically only draws 2 amperes on receive, but about 15 amperes on transmit. This is why power supply problems often do not become apparent until you try to transmit. Purchase a power supply with enough amperage capacity to handle your radio, plus have a little in reserve. A radio needing 15-amps during transmit should be matched up with a 20-amp power supply as a minimum. Using a 15-amp power supply for a 14-amp transmit draw will lead to an overworked power supply and a shorter life span. Have a little capacity in reserve, as with a 20-amp power supply. (and this is a reference to the "continuous" output rating, NOT the "intermittent / ICS / surge" rating).
-Small needle-nose pliers, small diagonal cutters, flush-cutting pliers: Available in a set from Sears, these usually have gold-colored rubber covers on the handles. They also periodically come up on sale for less than $17 for the set of three. These are small tools designed for electronics and small projects. Most folks have the larger tools for working with wiring, but they are just too big for dealing with circuit cards. The flush-cutting pliers are handy for working with circuit boards. Use them to cut off the excessive component lead length after soldering a component to a board. During desoldering, use them to clip the folded over component leads after removing the solder. This is where the flush-cutting ability allows you to cut the lead right where it comes through the hole on the circuit card.
-Jeweler's Screwdriver Set, Nut Driver Set, Torx driver set: There are a growing number of circuit boards being secured with screws that have a Torx head or spline head. Be sure to get the "security" version of the Torx driver set. They have a hole in the center to accommodate the center pin found on "security" versions of the Torx-head screws. They will also work on the regular Torx-head screws, so you can't go wrong.
-Hemostats: Also called "locking forceps". Handy when you need a really narrow but very long pair of needle-nose pliers. I have used them as a heat sink when soldering. Clamp them on the component lead to protect the transistor from heat while you solder the lead on the other side of the circuit board. Clamp them onto a group of wires that are in the way of the wire that you are soldering. Let the weight of the hemostat pull the other wires down and out of the way, so you don't bump & melt the insulation off the adjacent wires with the soldering iron tip.
The best local place to purchase hemostats is at the annual "MAGI" farm equipment show here in Great Falls. There is always one vendor with 10-15 tables set up in a large rectangle, covered with various automotive tools. Also a good source for a variety of other small tools. Hemostats are available in large & small sizes, with straight or curved jaws. Get one of each! The larger ones are also handy for fishing out screws that have fallen down into some inaccessible location. Inspect the hemostat before purchasing to ensure the jaws match up when closed with no gaps or side-to-side misalignment.
The Great Falls MAGI show is held at the Four Seasons Arena on the fairgrounds every year in mid-January. Tickets for free admission are usually available in advance from various local agriculture-related businesses. Get your tickets the week prior to avoid missing out. Otherwise you have to pay $5.00 at the door for admission.
Here are a few ideas:
-Multi-meter: Also called a Volt-Ohm Meter (VOM) because it can measure AC voltage, DC voltage, and resistance values. Sears will periodically have a sale on their Craftsman multi-meters, which usually have a red rubber wrap-around cover that protects it from bumps. On sale a basic model of Craftsman digital multi-meter can cost less than $17, making it hard to pass up. Get one for your tool box and a second one for your Go-Bag. It is hard to troubleshoot a radio problem out in the field if you can't even verify that you have a steady source of 12-volts DC.
Use it to verify that 120 volts AC is going into the radio power supply and 12-volts DC is coming out (to be specific, 13.8 volts DC). Measure the output voltage while the radio is transmitting. If the output voltage falls to 10-11 volts, the power supply regulation has failed. Use only regulated power supplies that will provide a constant 13.8 vdc output regardless of the amperage draw of the radio. A 50-watt VHF (2-meter) mobile radio typically only draws 2 amperes on receive, but about 15 amperes on transmit. This is why power supply problems often do not become apparent until you try to transmit. Purchase a power supply with enough amperage capacity to handle your radio, plus have a little in reserve. A radio needing 15-amps during transmit should be matched up with a 20-amp power supply as a minimum. Using a 15-amp power supply for a 14-amp transmit draw will lead to an overworked power supply and a shorter life span. Have a little capacity in reserve, as with a 20-amp power supply. (and this is a reference to the "continuous" output rating, NOT the "intermittent / ICS / surge" rating).
-Small needle-nose pliers, small diagonal cutters, flush-cutting pliers: Available in a set from Sears, these usually have gold-colored rubber covers on the handles. They also periodically come up on sale for less than $17 for the set of three. These are small tools designed for electronics and small projects. Most folks have the larger tools for working with wiring, but they are just too big for dealing with circuit cards. The flush-cutting pliers are handy for working with circuit boards. Use them to cut off the excessive component lead length after soldering a component to a board. During desoldering, use them to clip the folded over component leads after removing the solder. This is where the flush-cutting ability allows you to cut the lead right where it comes through the hole on the circuit card.
-Jeweler's Screwdriver Set, Nut Driver Set, Torx driver set: There are a growing number of circuit boards being secured with screws that have a Torx head or spline head. Be sure to get the "security" version of the Torx driver set. They have a hole in the center to accommodate the center pin found on "security" versions of the Torx-head screws. They will also work on the regular Torx-head screws, so you can't go wrong.
-Hemostats: Also called "locking forceps". Handy when you need a really narrow but very long pair of needle-nose pliers. I have used them as a heat sink when soldering. Clamp them on the component lead to protect the transistor from heat while you solder the lead on the other side of the circuit board. Clamp them onto a group of wires that are in the way of the wire that you are soldering. Let the weight of the hemostat pull the other wires down and out of the way, so you don't bump & melt the insulation off the adjacent wires with the soldering iron tip.
The best local place to purchase hemostats is at the annual "MAGI" farm equipment show here in Great Falls. There is always one vendor with 10-15 tables set up in a large rectangle, covered with various automotive tools. Also a good source for a variety of other small tools. Hemostats are available in large & small sizes, with straight or curved jaws. Get one of each! The larger ones are also handy for fishing out screws that have fallen down into some inaccessible location. Inspect the hemostat before purchasing to ensure the jaws match up when closed with no gaps or side-to-side misalignment.
The Great Falls MAGI show is held at the Four Seasons Arena on the fairgrounds every year in mid-January. Tickets for free admission are usually available in advance from various local agriculture-related businesses. Get your tickets the week prior to avoid missing out. Otherwise you have to pay $5.00 at the door for admission.
73 de
Bruce, KA2ODP/7
Bruce, KA2ODP/7
Re: Tools Recommended for New Hams
On the subject of soldering irons for radio electronics work, this comes down to two basic types: soldering "pencils" and soldering "guns".
The soldering pencils have small soldering tips and usually around 35 watts of power. They are useful for soldering on circuit cards where a small tip and low wattage is required. If you use too much heat, or stay on a connection too long, you can actually cause the solder trace to lift right off the circuit board (a bad thing). It requires practice and skill to apply just the necessary heat needed to melt the solder and remove the component from the circuit board.
Soldering guns have much larger tips and much higher wattage levels. They typically have two heat ranges available through the two-position trigger; 100/140 watts, 200/260 watts, and 200/300 watts are common combinations found with the Weller brand of soldering guns. The soldering guns are needed when soldering RF connectors such as the PL-259. The soldering pencil tip is too small and wattage too low to effectively heat up the connector enough to get solder to melt. The 100/140 watt model is usually all you need for general electronics work. Look for models that include a light under the heating elements - it really helps you see what you are soldering.
On the subject of soldering pencils, I have had very good luck with my Weller soldering station. Note that this is a soldering "station" not a soldering "pencil". The problem with most inexpensive soldering pencils is that they lack thermostatic control. They are on, full bore, for as long as they are plugged in. In contrast, soldering stations are usually thermostatically controlled - if they are not being used to solder a connection, they back down to an idle temperature. As soon as you touch them to a solder joint, the demand for heat makes the thermostat trigger and quickly bring the tip up to full temperature. When you finish soldering and place the iron back in the holder, the thermostat again senses it and backs the tip off to a lower "idle" temperature.
The bottom line is that you get what you pay for. Save up your money and buy a quality product, and you will only need to make the purchase once. Go cheap and you will be replacing the item time after time. In the end you will have spent the same amount as the quality item cost in the first place.
In my early radio days I repeatedly bought the cheap soldering pencils from Radio Shack. The ones that had interchangeable tips - you could solder a radio circuit one minute, then switch to burning your call sign onto a plank of wood the next minute. Those cheapo soldering pencils would be constantly cooking at their full operating temperature the whole time they were plugged in. The end result was that the tips would burn-up. They would get pitted and the threads would bind up, making it impossible to unscrew and replace the tip. Although I had purchased spare tips, this condition forced me to buy yet another entire soldering pencil at Radio Shack and repeat the cycle.
After finishing Air Force radio electronics tech school in Biloxi, Mississippi, I was shipped overseas to West Germany. I started to notice a trend: both the tech school and the radio shop in West Germany used the same brand and model of soldering station. It was a Weller soldering station. So I finally took the plunge and mail ordered the same thing for my own use. It was very expensive for me at the time. I had been purchasing the "disposable" soldering pencils at Radio Shack for $7.95 each (should have asked for "bulk" prices )
The Weller model "WTCPN" soldering station cost me around $80 at the time, plus shipping and handling. But today I am still using the same soldering station, and with the original tip. In fact, the tip shows no major signs of wear. That's the big difference having a thermostat makes.
The Weller soldering station has evolved over the years, and there are various models now available. The closest current model to what I have would be the "WTCPT". It is a basic soldering station with a 700 degree tip. There is a deluxe "WESD51" model available with a digital display that allows you to dial in the desired tip temperature between 350 - 850 degrees. But I have found the basic model with the 700 degree tip works fine for general purpose soldering. The Weller WTCPT soldering station is available from a variety of vendors, including Tessco. Replacement heating elements and different sized tips are also available. Check out the AES catalog if you would like to see a picture and description of the two models. The current retail price is $160 for the WTCPT and $170 for the WESD51 model. Weller also makes a more basic model, the WEL100, that has a temperature control for 5-40 watts of soldering power. It usually sells for around $55.
Seek out someone with a business account with Tessco and you might get a better deal if they add it to their next routine order.
The soldering pencils have small soldering tips and usually around 35 watts of power. They are useful for soldering on circuit cards where a small tip and low wattage is required. If you use too much heat, or stay on a connection too long, you can actually cause the solder trace to lift right off the circuit board (a bad thing). It requires practice and skill to apply just the necessary heat needed to melt the solder and remove the component from the circuit board.
Soldering guns have much larger tips and much higher wattage levels. They typically have two heat ranges available through the two-position trigger; 100/140 watts, 200/260 watts, and 200/300 watts are common combinations found with the Weller brand of soldering guns. The soldering guns are needed when soldering RF connectors such as the PL-259. The soldering pencil tip is too small and wattage too low to effectively heat up the connector enough to get solder to melt. The 100/140 watt model is usually all you need for general electronics work. Look for models that include a light under the heating elements - it really helps you see what you are soldering.
On the subject of soldering pencils, I have had very good luck with my Weller soldering station. Note that this is a soldering "station" not a soldering "pencil". The problem with most inexpensive soldering pencils is that they lack thermostatic control. They are on, full bore, for as long as they are plugged in. In contrast, soldering stations are usually thermostatically controlled - if they are not being used to solder a connection, they back down to an idle temperature. As soon as you touch them to a solder joint, the demand for heat makes the thermostat trigger and quickly bring the tip up to full temperature. When you finish soldering and place the iron back in the holder, the thermostat again senses it and backs the tip off to a lower "idle" temperature.
The bottom line is that you get what you pay for. Save up your money and buy a quality product, and you will only need to make the purchase once. Go cheap and you will be replacing the item time after time. In the end you will have spent the same amount as the quality item cost in the first place.
In my early radio days I repeatedly bought the cheap soldering pencils from Radio Shack. The ones that had interchangeable tips - you could solder a radio circuit one minute, then switch to burning your call sign onto a plank of wood the next minute. Those cheapo soldering pencils would be constantly cooking at their full operating temperature the whole time they were plugged in. The end result was that the tips would burn-up. They would get pitted and the threads would bind up, making it impossible to unscrew and replace the tip. Although I had purchased spare tips, this condition forced me to buy yet another entire soldering pencil at Radio Shack and repeat the cycle.
After finishing Air Force radio electronics tech school in Biloxi, Mississippi, I was shipped overseas to West Germany. I started to notice a trend: both the tech school and the radio shop in West Germany used the same brand and model of soldering station. It was a Weller soldering station. So I finally took the plunge and mail ordered the same thing for my own use. It was very expensive for me at the time. I had been purchasing the "disposable" soldering pencils at Radio Shack for $7.95 each (should have asked for "bulk" prices )
The Weller model "WTCPN" soldering station cost me around $80 at the time, plus shipping and handling. But today I am still using the same soldering station, and with the original tip. In fact, the tip shows no major signs of wear. That's the big difference having a thermostat makes.
The Weller soldering station has evolved over the years, and there are various models now available. The closest current model to what I have would be the "WTCPT". It is a basic soldering station with a 700 degree tip. There is a deluxe "WESD51" model available with a digital display that allows you to dial in the desired tip temperature between 350 - 850 degrees. But I have found the basic model with the 700 degree tip works fine for general purpose soldering. The Weller WTCPT soldering station is available from a variety of vendors, including Tessco. Replacement heating elements and different sized tips are also available. Check out the AES catalog if you would like to see a picture and description of the two models. The current retail price is $160 for the WTCPT and $170 for the WESD51 model. Weller also makes a more basic model, the WEL100, that has a temperature control for 5-40 watts of soldering power. It usually sells for around $55.
Seek out someone with a business account with Tessco and you might get a better deal if they add it to their next routine order.
73 de
Bruce, KA2ODP/7
Bruce, KA2ODP/7
Re: Tools Recommended for New Hams
Here's a comment from Bob, N7PTM:
As with Bruce, I have a Weller soldering station, model WTCPT. Best thing going. You'll also find a lighted magnifying glass (mounted on an articulating arm, like a draftsman's light) a good idea. I have yet to find a good one however.
On the subject of solder, buy a pound of the stuff and be done with it. One pound of 22 or 24ga 60/40 solder will last a lifetime. (60/40 = % tin/lead) Avoid "lead-free" or "RoHS-compliant" solder.
Regarding meters, get an auto-ranging meter. They're pretty much standard now though. For those not familiar, non-auto-ranging meters require you to have some idea of what you're measuring. You set the meter to the type and amount of voltage you expect to see. On one of my meters the DC options are 0-2VDC, 0-20VDC, and I think 0-200VDC, so for a car battery i'd set it to the 0-20vdc range. If you buy an autoranging meter, all you need to know is if it's DC or AC and select accordingly. I suspect in the future even that won't be necessary; the meter will detect it and adjust too. Fluke makes some excellent meters, but all are over $150.
Bob N7PTM
"Number 7 Pegs The Meter"
http://home.bresnan.net/~bobmorrow/ham/
As with Bruce, I have a Weller soldering station, model WTCPT. Best thing going. You'll also find a lighted magnifying glass (mounted on an articulating arm, like a draftsman's light) a good idea. I have yet to find a good one however.
On the subject of solder, buy a pound of the stuff and be done with it. One pound of 22 or 24ga 60/40 solder will last a lifetime. (60/40 = % tin/lead) Avoid "lead-free" or "RoHS-compliant" solder.
Regarding meters, get an auto-ranging meter. They're pretty much standard now though. For those not familiar, non-auto-ranging meters require you to have some idea of what you're measuring. You set the meter to the type and amount of voltage you expect to see. On one of my meters the DC options are 0-2VDC, 0-20VDC, and I think 0-200VDC, so for a car battery i'd set it to the 0-20vdc range. If you buy an autoranging meter, all you need to know is if it's DC or AC and select accordingly. I suspect in the future even that won't be necessary; the meter will detect it and adjust too. Fluke makes some excellent meters, but all are over $150.
Bob N7PTM
"Number 7 Pegs The Meter"
http://home.bresnan.net/~bobmorrow/ham/