Hello Everyone,
I have in the past been involved in troubleshooting electronics and just playing around. Due to my military obligations, the time was never there to continue, so I found myself a victim of the old saying, "If you don't use it, you lose it! Now almost 22 years later, I am involved with amateur radio and getting into kitbuilding and circuit design and build. My first purchase's need to be the basics, like soldering iron, solder, flux, solder braid and such. I also would like some advice on the basic components I should initially get, and how much? For instance, transisters, diodes, resistors, IC's and so on. I have looked, but have been unable to find an explanation on what size solder I should buy. I have no idea if .031 diameter would be too thick, would .02 be too small? The soldering iron is another issue. I'm not too sure how many watts I would need. I do know that I want to be able to control the temperature. I will be doing surface mount I guess, I will be building amatuer radio amplifiers, CW transmitters, signal generators, and anything else I deem cool. I am long winded, but I would appreciate any input and advice anyone could be gracious enough to give.
Thank you,
Jeff