[AMRadio] Paper caps in your Globe Champ

[JAMES HANLON]

Kim,

I would disagree about your needing to replace the paper caps in your Globe Champ.  I have restored something like 40 vintage receivers and more transmitters than that, and my experience is that paper caps do not all reach end of life within the life span of your Champ.  If you have a condenser checker, you might want to disconnect a sample cap and measure it for leakage.  An alternate would be to measure its resistance with a high range dvm.  Most paper caps are impregnated with wax.  If the cap has significant leakage it will get warm and that will cause the wax to flow into a blob on the bottom of the cap body or possibly even to drip down the the bottom cover underneath it.  Look for signs like that on the caps in your rig.  If you don't find any sign of leakage or of wax flow, I would not bother replacing them on a wholesale basis.

There are a few exceptions.  There are "black beauties," black plastic molded tubular caps, that have a bad reputation for failing shorted.  If the Champ was built with them I would replace them.  Hammarlund used them in my SP-600, and they all failed over a short period of time after I started using the receiver.  

If you need a consult, I'm available.

73,

Jim Hanlon, W8KGI