[Milsurplus] Water, Water Everywhere.

[WA5CAB at cs.com]

I doubt it, for several reasons.

(a) not everyone thinks that a BC-348-Q is the best model.  I have always 
thought of the JNQ's as the inferior "El Cheapo" versions.

(b) the BC-348-P's and R's are the same age.

(c) the difference in aging between 71 years and 74 or 75 years is 
negligible, especially when you factor in the vastly differing storage conditions of 
various examples.

None of which should be taken to mean that I disagree with you about 
deterioration of fiber insulators or boards.  Or of bakelite, either.  However, 
G10 PC board material would be a much better replacement for fiber than any of 
the plastics.  Machines much better, although you need to use carbide 
cutters.

I will comment that well aged heavy MFP varnish coatings can be a problem.  
I have had a number of BC-611-F's through here where I had to use the next 
higher frequency range Antenna Coil in order to get the antenna to tune in 
Receive.

Robert Downs - Houston
wa5cab dot com (Web Store)
MVPA 9480

In a message dated 12/11/2015 21:10:50 PM Central Standard Time, 
ka2ivy at verizon.net writes: 
> I have had fibre insulators 
> and boards in old radios and TVs that became leaky at RF, but tested 
> fine on DC. Replacing them with plastic gave unreal improvements in 
> performance even though fabricating a replacement was challenging. I 
> tried baking them, it didn't change anything. I think the chemistry in 
> the fibre and/or varnish changes with time and becomes conductive. I 
> wonder if this has anything to do with the  belief that a "Q" model 
> BC-348 is the best?
> 
>    Bruce Gentry, KA2IVY