[MRCA] Component storage

[mstangelo at comcast.net]

One lesson I learned the hard way is to store components in containers or bags which would not decompose of outgas. I got rid of the black plastic foam years ago and store most of my components in static free pink or opaque black bags.

Years ago I matched some polystyrene capacitors on an HP Capacitance meter at work. I saved the caps in a piece of paper where I documented the values.

I'm working on a uBITX QRP rig and noticed the receiver overloads with AM broadcast station because the receiver section only has a low pass filter for the HF bands so I decided to built a high pass filter to attenuate all signals below 2 MHz.

I went to my polystyrene cap drawer to select capacitors. I noticed the paper turned yellow and all of the caps stored in the paper had discolored leads and would not take solder. Apparently the acid used in the papermaking process attacked the plated leads. Fortunately the other caps were good.

One is never to old to learn something new.

Mike N2MS