Early Stage of Construction

In this picture, the Front Panel board is about 1/4 of the way through construction.  The small black/gray squares on each side of the board are the switches that control the rig (from the front panel).  As you may have noticed, I accidentally had the board upside-down for the picture.  I guess that's what happens when you've been breathing rosin smoke for a couple of hours.

The kit comes with a spacer which is used to maintain equal spacing between the switches and the PCB (this is important so that the buttons on the front of the rig have a uniform look). 

A few more components, such as IC's, mic jack, resistors, and caps have been added above. 

As the board nears completion, the LCD and its diffuser have been added, along with all potentiometers. 

Since the SSB option (KSB2) was purchased along with the basic kit, several components from that option get installed on the Front Panel board.   The picture on the right shows the detail.

Underside of Front Panel Board

A few parts on the Front Panel board are mounted on the underside of the PCB.  Here is the detail involved with connecting the Optical Encoder(Z1) to the board (the round, white-bodied component).  The bare wire, soldered at the front of the board, wraps around each of the four connector pins and is soldered into place.  Above Z1 is U1, the LCD Driver Chip (40-pin).  Below the Optical Encoder is J1, a 20-pin female connector used to attach the Front Panel board to the RF board.

At last, the Front Panel assembly is completed!   The Front Panel board has been finished and attached to the front chassis piece with a set screw (behind the large knob).  Thanks to careful usage of the spacer, the buttons all line up perfectly with their openings in the chassis.  All knobs have been attached to their posts, and the only pieces missing are the headphone jack and on/off power switch.  Those components get installed in a later stage.