Christmas is a good time to invest in electronics making tools. Here are some ideas for ham Christmas soldering gifts you can put on your list.

Over the past few Christmas seasons, I have focused on improving my ability to solder circuits. First, a decent solder station with precise temperature control. Second, a hot air rework station for working with surface mount parts. Each of these can be obtained for as little as $50 these days.

My 939D soldering station, lower center above, came with a variety of tips and a spare heater element. This is a low cost clone, but seems to work well enough. Here is a review of my unit.

On the surface mount side, my 858D rework station is also a low cost clone, but again, works well enough. I got this for Christmas last year when I started my SMD adventures. Ham Christmas soldering gifts can be a great way to start you down new experimenting paths. Take a look.

How well do these cheap Chinese tools work? Based on my experience, well enough. and worth the try. Especially for a hobbyist with limited resources. Of course, you can spend a lot more if you want.

The ability to control temperature when soldering is important. Thermistors and digital measurement make this easy.

Ham Christmas Soldering Gifts – A Picture is Worth

Last Christmas, I put the Andonstar ADSM 201 digital microscope on my list of ham Christmas soldering gifts. You can get these for under $150. A good microscope is essential for working with tiny surface mount components, as I have done over the past year.

What makes this gift so amazing is the HDMI output you can use to see your circuit on a large monitor, as shown above. So far it works perfectly and also provides the ability to save pictures of your work. Here is a review.

So, I hope you have enjoyed these articles about some relatively inexpensive gifts you can put on your list for this Christmas, and then have fun building new projects.