Boards for RF circuit, PCB or perfboards?

[Jerran]

Do perferated boards work very well for soldered RF module boards? I know that PCB is going to be the best bet but Im still not real confortable making them, will a threw hole perfboard work very well or should I just bite the bullet and make a PCB?

Also why is it I cant get a FM transmitter/reciever circuit working on a solderless breadboard? I understand that the board has some compasatance and affects the modules function but I would still think they would still work. Ive tested AM 300 Mhz circuits with little or no difficulty but cant get these new MKR5's to do anything even from 1 foot away. My distributor suggested soldering the circuit and trying it but Im thinking that if I cant get them to work on a breadboard something might be wrong with one or both. I used the same board and encoder/decoder as I used with the Ming AM 300 Mhz transmitter so I know that everything was wired correctly.

 

[Optikon]

Do perferated boards work very well for soldered RF module boards? I know that PCB is going to be the best bet but Im still not real confortable making them, will a threw hole perfboard work very well or should I just bite the bullet and make a PCB?

Also why is it I cant get a FM transmitter/reciever circuit working on a solderless breadboard? I understand that the board has some compasatance and affects the modules function but I would still think they would still work. Ive tested AM 300 Mhz circuits with little or no difficulty but cant get these new MKR5's to do anything even from 1 foot away. My distributor suggested soldering the circuit and trying it but Im thinking that if I cant get them to work on a breadboard something might be wrong with one or both. I used the same board and encoder/decoder as I used with the Ming AM 300 Mhz transmitter so I know that everything was wired correctly.

Generally, I think the parasitics on the solderless board are alot more unpredictable and unknown.. so it might work! but for the wrong reasons. Like you have seen, no guarantees when you try a new module etc..

A PCB is your best bet because, you can design impedances and control parasitics (to a certain degree) alot easier.

 

[Optikon]

 

[Jerran]

Thanks for the reply. I guess this project will give me a reason to practice my PCB construction hehe.