The New Hotness

A QRPme Pocket Pal II could be a suitable project for a Squidwrench “advanced soldering” class:

Yes, it comes with a tin case:

You must fit your own insulating sheet under the PCB; polypropylene snipped from a retail package works fine.

It’s intended as a “mint tin sized tester for all kinds of hamfest goodies”, but it seems like a nice source of small currents, voltages, and signals suitable for stimulating all manner of circuitry one might encounter in later sessions of a beginning electronics class.

Before using it, of course, one must solder a handful of small through-hole parts into the PCB, a skill none of us were born with.

For completeness, the back side, hot from the soldering iron:

The kits (always buy two of anything like this) arrived minus a few parts, which I suspect was due to an avalanche of orders brought on by a favorable QST review. Fortunately, I (still) have a sufficient Heap o’ Parts to finish it off without resupply, although a hank of 9 V battery snaps will arrive in short order.