It's extreme soldering again!

Well, I've started with my Arduino WSPR beacon project from here:

http://g0mgx.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/well-this-looks-just-great.html

I've hit some obstacles with the GPS module and am planning to come back to that bit later.

The original plan that I am going to follow uses an American QRP Club project the DDS-60.

http://midnightdesignsolutions.com/dds60/index.html

This is a AD9851 based DDS but includes a small on-board RF amplifier and a low pass 60MHz filter. As this was the board used in the design, I ordered one. It arrived today and looks like this:

It's another surface mount project and came very neatly packaged. I had to purchase the AD9851 separately (I think when the kit was originally put together you could get a sample from Analogue Devices). Now, this AD9851 is a very small component indeed and has 28 pins... Using a suitable soldering iron and a magnifying glass I have managed to get the chip on the board OK. This is the best I can manage to show the result:

If you open up the image above you can see that it's not a bad job. Here's the other SMD chip installed:

So the rest should be quite easy going in comparison as they are just Rs and Cs....

All in all not a bad start to the latest exercise in extreme soldering.. not bad, egh?