You all are awesome! Betwe en the replies and the PM's I think I'm taken care of.

I still need to improve my soldering skills, but that'll come with practice - which I forsee getting a lot of in the near future.

Looks like I'll be dropping in @ the Longmont Harbor Freight to pick up some new forceps and a "helping hands" assembly too. Soldering connectors onto comm cables isn't as easy to me as soldering copper plumbing pipes with a blow torch.