7.1.2. HANDLING OF PRINTED CIRCUITS

Inside the radio you will find too that all the components are soldered to one or more sheets of brown or white plastic material which has on one or both sides copper or tinned conductor paths. These sheets are called PRINTED CIRCUITS. These plates are actually the whole wiring of this radio. To make it possible to have a rather complicated whole wiring on these sheets it is often necessary to print the conductorpaths extremly thin. This fact makes it necessary to keep in mind the following:

- Don't bend the printed circuits - you might break a single conductor and you hardly will be able to find this fault anymore.

- heat them up only very carefully - you might destroy the conducting paths and then there is much more to be repaired than before.

- touch the conducting paths only if it is unavoidable-they might oxidate and then give no more good connection.

- if you want to check the circuit, always think about another method before starting to dissolder anything - you might spoil the conducting path.

- if you ever broke a conducting path you can repair it by a piece of wire (insulated or not depends on the case you find) but be careful not do cause a short circuit anywhere by a drop of tin (even a very small drop can cause a lot of trouble). In case of a short circuit you might spoil a few other components.