Rishworth UKBB RF Probe made permanent

Despite its simplicity, and that it was intended as a very quick to build, 'no-solder' project, I was so impressed by the neat little RF Probe kit supplied by Rex W1REX or QRPme for the G-QRP club Rishworth Conventions 'UKs Biggest Buildathon, that I decided to actually solder it!

I didnt want to tag solder to the IC socket, as I felt this would look untidy. So I took the drastic decision to remove the socket. Rather than struggle to desolder so many pins, I did this (may Rex forgive me!) destructively - by cutting away the body of the socket and then using a heat gun to melt the solder and allow me to knock out the pins.

The result is now a very neat permanent rebuild, which will eventually get a nice little round housing, a sharp probe, and some nice leads with 4mm plugs on them

I retained the original vertically mounted zero-ohm links, rather than replace these with wire links, so I can still use it as is, before it gets boxed up.