Ken et al,
You are NOT ALONE in the PCB assembly arena. Many of us, myself included, are getting out our old soldering irons and gadgets so we can participate in this new Blitzoryung adventure. Surface mount assembly is something I've never done - that era came long after I hung up my soldering iron. I can still remember the old gasoline soldering irons from the 50's and 50's. Gads they must have been dangerous...
I just received confirmation from Egon that my package is on its way and to expect it to be here in two to three weeks. In the meantime, I am building my panel loop antenna version 2). Hope to be done with it sometime tomorrow or Friday.
And yes, I've missed your lightning pages. We are in the middle of another thunder storm right now with lots of lightning all around but you wouldn't know it by the lightning pages which show essentially nothing for this immediate area. We've had lots of brush and mountain fires as a result too.