[Boatanchors] BBOD's are really reliable (sic)

[WA5CAB at cs.com]

I've never heard of a Brown Beauty tubular capacitor.  However, my 
recommendation has always been and remains that all Black Beauties should be replaced 
out of hand (treated as wolves are).  Beyond that, statistically if more than 
two of a particular value and style capacitor are found to be bad in one radio, 
start checking the rest.  If you get to four bad, you may as well plan to 
replace all.  For statistical purposes, I count duals or triples as one each.  So 
four triples with one bad section each means assume all are bad.  In general, 
WW-II vintage sets are likely to have a bad capacitor here and there whereas 
Korean War vintage sets are more likely to have all or none bad.  Except for 
Black Beauties which are always bad.

Just finished rebuilding a BC-312.  All six of the triple .05's were bad (the 
.047ufd  630V polyester that Fair are now carrying are a perfect fit for 
rebuilding the triples.  After you pop the top cover and remove the old 
capacitors, also remove the all-around insulator).  A few other random capacitors were 
bad.  But miraculously the 50ufd electrolytic was fine.

In a message dated 6/4/2005 9:03:53 PM Central Daylight Time, gzook at yahoo.com 
writes: 
> In the Collins 75A2 and 75A3 they are brown in color,
> not black.  But, it has been my experience that the
> brown ones are just as bad, if not worse, than the
> black ones.  In fact, I have a 75A2 on the bench right
> now to change out the capacitors.

Robert & Susan Downs - Houston
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MVPA 9480
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