"Manhattan" style prototyping.
Vero board- you may be able to use that more effectively than manhattan for filters. Also ebay user "rfextra" sells a small filter PCB that you can use to make small filters very easily. It depends what frequency you need this for and how cheap you are..
Ugly style can work too the key to success being make everything incredibly short- especially the path the ground in critical places. This is why home made (but vias) or sent out PCBs using SMT is the way to go, ultimately, it allows you to have ground planes and predictability that is difficult to impossible to achieve in any other manner.
But FR4 is also lossy at higher freqs.
I am working on an RF project and have a 40MHz signal (it'll eventually be in the 140MHz range, I'm keeping it low for now since my scope is only 100MHz). The signal currently goes from PCB, via coax, to the scope, and all is relatively well.
But now I want to insert a filter into the signal. I don't have a coax inline filter, so want to breadboard something. I have a couple of BNC-to-test lead adaptors, and tried to put the filter together on a breadboard and thus insert into the signal path. The result is a disaster - both the input to the filter, and the output of the filter are horribly distorted. A square-ish wave now looks like a jagged triangular wave.
My question is general - is there a way to use a breadboard at these frequencies? Or should I just give it up as a bad idea and make my prototypes more with more permanent techniques (dead bug, varo board, etc.)?
Don't use a breadboard above the very bottom of HF, except at the very beginning. too much stray capacitance and inductance.
You could use the island technique for HF.
Put SMA edge mount connectors for your connections but instead of clipping it to the edge as is done normally, have it higher, sitting on its edge mount connector like a little stand. That will work fine for VHF too.
Doing this you can make some small filter prototyping boards.
Its easy, it takes longer for me to write it than do it, almost. The kind of SMA connector I get the most of is the edge connecting kind. Just soldertwo down facing each other a few cm apart from one another.. not grabbing the end of the PCB, sitting on it. Then build your filter in that space. If you anticipate maybe needing more room just use a larger piece of PCB so you have some room to expand. If its not big enough desolder it and move them a bit farther apart.
You can use the nibs chopped out by your nibbling tool as anchors for both through hole or SMT parts by using super glue, but ventilate well - with a fan blowing the smoke out your window when you solder to its top..