Do you need a special soldering iron?

You can buy a roll of solder sucking wire at Rat Shack that works fine.

I agree with Ghost, would be very careful with a soldering gun around a PCB (printed circuit board).

Vman71,

Ghostrider45 is off on a couple of points.

1) You want a to use a 15watt iron.
2) The solder should be 63/37 rosin core. This has a lower melting point than 60/40.
3) Unless you are working on a dual sided PCB solder wick works better than a manual solder sucker.
4) Always clean your connections with Isopropal (SP) Alcohol before soldering you connections.
5) Clean your leads with a pencil eraser and then alcohol prior to soldering.

There is more involved but that you should get you started.

Michael

P.S. In my former life I was a certified 2M technician.

Vman, thanks for the update. You're right about the iron wattage - lower is better. Actually my tool of choice is a temperature controlled iron. These use a sensor at the iron tip and deliver just enough power to keep it at the right temperature. You can also dial in your desired tip temperature to suit the solder and job. Absolutely the safest iron for PCB work.

I paid about $80 for mine 10 years ago.

I still like the solder sucker better than the wick.