This type of construction of resistors and even capacitors is common in the
old radios of the 20s and 30s.
73 Jim
W5JO
----- Original Message -----
From: "Merz Donald S" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "'Amradio (E-mail)" <amradio@mailman.qth.net>; "'Glowbugs (E-mail)"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, February 14, 2005 11:27 AM
Subject: [AMRadio] 2 Meg Multiplier Oddity
Yesterday, I was replacing a 2 megohm meter multiplier that seemed to have
failed. It was a single large-bodied resistor stamped "2M 3.5W". I get it
unsoldered and it falls apart in my hands--a cardboard tube with two
2-watt, 1 megohm resistors soldered together in the middle. From the
outside, you could not tell that this was 2 resistors in series. It was
the connection between them that had failed.
Very strange.
In replacing this, I was trying to use some resistors from my stock of old
ex-mil surplus types. These are usually painted brown and stamped with
some specific value--like 681K--on them. Some of these have a construction
that has metal end caps attached to the hard body of the resistor (not
sure what the body is made of). In many cases, I discovered that when
these metal end caps were just gently tugged , they came right off.
Clearly, this is another component design that was not engineered to last
50 years.
73, Don Merz, N3RHT
