Thanks for the detailed reply. Interesting read. I'm a ham as well. I think the through hole stuff is dead. It's difficult and expensive to get a lot of parts

Thanks for the detailed reply. Interesting read. I'm a ham as well. I think the through hole stuff is dead. It's difficult and expensive to get a lot of parts now and my huge stockpile is dwindling. I prototype with strips of FR4 sliced up and SOIC/0805 parts now. I'm not going to pay 4x the cost for a TH part! The irony is I still have a 1962 Heathkit VTVM I use regularly with it. The thing is completely immune to RF. Same problem with availability here in the U.K. Our biggest suppliers do free next day delivery though down to single resistors which is pretty good.