Surface-Mount Soldering Session, June 17th 2023

/ Cary Willis, KD9ITO

This was a beautiful Saturday morning. Some of our NIBBB members gathered at the Northbrook Library’s Makerspace and learned how to solder surface-mount chips to prepare for more launches this year.

Our teacher today was Michael Seedman, AA6DY one of the Co-Founders of the NIBBB. Our Pico Balloon tracker pictured below is a 2 sided surface-mount soldered tracker weighing 1.6 grams. All the chips are soldered to pads on the board. The 6 pin connector used for programming the board are through-hole soldered with the small pins soldered on the oppposite side of the board. Once the tracker is programmed with a callsign and tracking code, the 6 pin connector can be broken off.

Our two hour session was with practice printed circuit boards and digital microscopes. Below is a 2 picture slideshow of the 103 Resistor (103 is for 10 and 3 zero’s after), 10,000 Ohms next to a dime shown on a digital microscope. It takes a steady hand and a lot of patience to get these chips in the right place on the board.

  • A roll of 1,000 10k resistors cost $10. Which is a good thing because they’re easy to lose
  • 103 Surface-Mount Resistor up close

Michael demonstrated how to solder using a Flux pen for smooth flow of the solder. Below is the digital microscope and practice printed circuit boards. With today’s practice session and our home sessions, we’ll be more comfortable soldering our actual trackers.

  • Digital Microscope
  • Blank practice circuit board

We then broke into groups and practiced our newly learned skills

  • Calvin and Janet Knowles, Kyli, Kelsi and Gordie Mulley
  • Cal Knowles, Doug Mulley, Stewart Spies, Jim Janiak and Loren Pollack
  • Gordie Mulley KD9TVR with his Dad, Doug Mulley KD9TPM
  • Loren Pollack, AD9AY came by today to try his hand at soldering with our members Stewart Spies, KB9LM and Jim Janiak KD9UQB
  • Michael Seedman, AA6DY helping Cal Knowles KD9WNU and Janet Knowles KD9WVO, Doug Mulley KD9TPM working with his son Gordie Mulley KD9TVR with Kelsi Mulley KE9LSI and Kyli Mulley
  • Kyli, Kelsi, Gordie and Doug Mulley
  • Stewart Spies, KB9LM, Jim Janiak KD9UQB, Michael Seedman AA6DY, with our guests Loren Pollack AD9AY and David Auerbach W9KRP

Cal Knowles KD9WNU and Gordie Mulley KD9TVR are the youngest members of the NIBBB, who will be entering the 7th grade. Kelsi Mulley KE9LSI will be starting her Junior year in High School. Not pictured are Mikaela Streicher KD9VIW who just graduated High School and will be attending the Colorado School of Mines, Noah Berg KD9RDT starting his Sophomore year in High School and Henry Fiely, KD9SRZ starting his Freshman year in High School.

Cal Knowles, KD9WNU with his new radio, the Yaesu FTDX10. Cal passed his Amateur Extra license and his Mom, Janet KD9WVO passed her General license on June 3rd 2023.
Almost 1 year ago, Kelsi and Gordie Mulley received their Official FCC General license on August 23rd 2022. We’ve been planning their Pico Balloon launches since last January. Now that summer vacation has started and the weather is more favorable, we hope to launch soon

Our next sessions will be programming our Pico Balloon tracker and pre-stretching the balloons.

73, Cary KD9ITO