Beginning this week i received my DG8SAQ Vector Network Analyzer kit. I used some of the rare time this week to start the assembly of the kit. Until now i finished the assembly and testing of the power supply section and the both DDS sections. Mounting the DDS IC’s was a little bit difficult even with a stereo microscope and hot air station. The PCB i got was gold plated without tin. For the first DDS i tried to solder the pins first and then i tried to get the solder tin through the open vias at the bottomof the PCB to the  top side. My fear was that there might be no connection beween ground and the exposed pad of the DDS. So i removed the chip again. I saw that my fear was not confirmed. The exposed pad was clearly soldered before. Cleaning the pads and soldering the chip a second time was really tougth job …

Two sections of the circuits still to do. Lets see !

DG8SAQ VNWA partly assembled