[Boatanchors] If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

[JAMES HANLON]

Dave,

Regarding your plans to replace fixed and variable capacitors in that VF-1, I would strongly suggest that you power it up and try it out before you go about replacing any parts.  My two VF-1s are still running happily on their original components.

I know there are folks who routinely replace all of the resistors and capacitors in an older transmitter or receiver before even turning anything on.  But it has been my experience with more than 40 receiver and transmitter restorations that blanket replacement of Rs and Cs is usually unnecessary overkill.  I've had only four receivers where I found it necessary to do anything but occasional part replacement.  My SP-600 Hammarlund Super Pro was originally built with those notorious "black beauty" tubular capacitors which all failed (shorted) shortly after I acquired it in the 70s.  My BC-348M had a batch of molded paper bypass caps all of which failed early in life, they would swell and burst.  I have a BC-453 Command Set receiver in which most of the canned bypass caps have failed shorted - Western Electric must have gotten a weak batch of caps when they built that receiver, because my Western Electric BC-454 and Colonial Radio BC-455 from the same era are still working well on their original Rs and Cs.  And all of the paper bypass caps in my Hallicrafters SX-43 reached end of life.  That receiver had considerable interior rust, suggesting that it must have been stored in a high humidity environment for a long while before it came to me, probably the reason for the demise of those caps.  I have other sets that date back well into the 30s that are still running on their original set of Rs and Cs, National SW-3, FB-7 and FBX receivers from 1933 and NTX30 and NSM modulator from 1938 for example, Hallicrafters SX-28 from 1941, RME-69 and RME-70 from 1941, just to name a few.  My original novice receiver, and HRO-50, which has been in the family since the summer of 1950, is still running on its original components.

So, except for some parts which have a reputation for fairly short life like electrolytic filter capacitors and black beauties, a good general rule is, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Jim, W8KGI