George, Your comment is very true for solid state and of course even more so on the older vintage tube gear. One short story I'll share that confirms your concerns about caps: I had recently replaced a two-section can in my AC-4 with a 'surplus' can electrolytic. Only days later, one of the sections shorted internally leaving the -60 volt bias gone. I was fortunate to be watching the TR-4 warm up. In 10 seconds or so, the plate amps went flying to the right on the meter, the finals started glowing red, and I grabbed the off switch immediately. So glad I was not up getting coffee. Took about an hour to understand what had happened. I replaced the cap, this time with known brand new small format electrolytics and all has been fine since.
73,
Bill KG4KKI
-----Original Message-----
From: john [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Friday, August 01, 2003 6:46 AM
To: George, W5YR; Jim Shorney; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [drakelist] Should I get rid of my 7 line?
At 12:20 AM 8/1/03 -0500, George, W5YR wrote:
>The likelihood of a microprocessor or other such complex chip failing in a
>modern radio - barring a lightning hit - is so small as to be negligible. In
>fact, barring infant mortalities on all the electronic parts these days, the
>failure rate is just about non-existent. Once a radio has survived the first
>few months, it is just about cast in concrete.
In general this is very true! The one "gotcha" in this equation
is still the lowly electrolytic cap. These things have lifetimes that are
many
many times shorter than the semiconductors they're adjacent to.
I think it's this technology that's going to start haunting us
as solid state gear ages.
73
John
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Submissions: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - subscribe drakelist in body
Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - unsubscribe drakelist in body
Hopelessly Lost: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - help in body of message
Brought to you courtesy of TLCHost.net http://www.tlchost.net/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- - - - - - - Appended by Scientific-Atlanta, Inc. - - - - - - -
This e-mail and any attachments may contain information which is confidential, proprietary, privileged or otherwise protected by law. The information is solely intended for the named addressee (or a person responsible for delivering it to the addressee). If you are not the intended recipient of this message, you are not authorized to read, print, retain, copy or disseminate this message or any part of it. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail and delete it from your computer.
