Quote Originally Posted by KG4CGC
...Right now I'm too scared to do surface mount work with my current iron. Once I get that sorted I'll go from there...
Take a length of small-gauge solid copper wire, strip and tin, and wrap around your iron's tip with a bit extending past the end. A "needle" iron, if you will.

Oh, and for us *ahem* getting on in years, a jewelers' loupe that clips to the eyeglasses, helps. :angel

Isn't there an old trick to dipoles, of placing a high-value resistor across the feedpoint, so that any trouble can be detected with an ohmmeter as a change in the resistor's initial value? What value/power rating for (x) transmitter power?